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DEATH 



THE AFTEE-LIFE. 



THREE LECTURES. 



BY 

ANDEEW JACKSON DAVIS. 



PHOTOGRAPHICALLY REPORTED BY ROBERT S. MOORE. 



ALSO, 

A VOICE FROM THE SUMMER LAND. 



; 




NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY A. J. DAVIS & CO., 

OFFICE, 274 CANAL STREET. 
1866. 






CONTENTS. 



1. Death and the After-Life. 

2. Scenes in the Summer Land. 

3. Society in the Summer Land. 

4. Voice from James Victor Wilson. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S65, 

By A. JACKSON DAVIS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United States for the 

District of New Jersey. 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 



"Death is but a kind and welcome servant, who unlocks with noiseless 
hand life's flower-encircled door, to show us those we love." 

I find myself somewhat embarrassed in speaking on 
a subject which, though it is not a stranger to human 
hopes and aspirations, is nevertheless quite foreign to 
most people's habits of thinking, opposed to their edu- 
cational bias, and which conflicts with popular methods 
of reasoning on the resurrection. 

I find three classes of persons who have read, and 
studied, and investigated the truths of this discourse. 
One class of minds are prepared for many spiritual 
things that I do not feel impressed to utter on this 
occasion. I am to address more especially a second 
class who have heard a large variety of opinions 
expressed concerning this subject, and are favorably 
inclined towards it, yet who have no practical know- 
ledge so far as the general question of immortality is 
concerned, and who are, therefore, in the rudiments of 
spiritual education respecting the processes of Death, 
and scenes in the After-life. 

Then I find that there is in society a supercilious 
class —I might say a super-silly class, (if this is not a 
dictionary word, it ought to be.) who fancy and profess 
that they know all — a band of intellectual finishers — 
persons who have an unhappy conceit in the perceptive 
powers — that they are thoroughly "posted." These 



4 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

last named persons are accustomed to the newspapers, 
to the genteel Weeklies and orthodox Monthlies, and 
to the trans-Atlantic Quarterlies, but are not at ail 
accustomed to think upon the spiritual, practical, and 
progressive questions discussed from the Harmonial 
platform. And yet these same persons have a. conceit 
that they cannot be further informed. Every such mind 
has a social center, and will exert his or her magnetic 
influence upon others. 

Now finding the public divided into these mental 
conditions, it becomes necessary that I should express 
something which would at least seem measurably 
familiar to the intuitions and religious education of the 
people. To speak upon a strange subject, and to 
describe scenes that are wholly transmunclane, and to 
link such subjects and descriptions with nothing analo- 
gous or known, would, to many minds, be building a 
temple without any basis in either Nature or Reason, 
and hence, utterly imaginative and unprofitable. For 
this reason I shall speak to the world from the position 
of religious conviction and general experience, going 
on the supposition that all rational men are interested 
in questions pertaining to the life after death. 

I begin by asking your attention to the Spiritual- 
ism of Paul — the most learned of the Apostles, who, in 
giving descriptions of death, said : "There is a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body ;" not that there 
would be, but there is " a spiritual body." Now there 
are individuals who think thus: "Paul says so; he is 
our authority ; we do not question his testimony : but 
it is all a great mystery." But the spiritual philoso- 
pher cheerfully and unprejudicially takes the testimony 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 5 

of Paul, stands it by the side of the organized human 
being, and asks, " Is there a spiritual body V Paul 
did not refer to something outside of human nature, but 
pointed to facts in the organization of persons in the 
world before him. The question is not whether Paul 
said it, but does Nature sustain the assertion ? All 
truth must be in harmony with the perfect system of 
Nature. 

There are persons everywhere who accept Paul's 
affirmation as final authority. There need be no con- 
troversy between Orthodoxites and Spiritualists on 
this question. We can shake hands over the subject; 
we can lock arms and walk together. If, with Paul, 
you believe that there positively is in each man's 
organism, not only a natural body, but also " a spiritual 
body," then you are as much committed to the funda- 
mental teachings of Spiritualism as I am, and I am on 
this point no more of a Spiritualist than you Christians 
are, and henceforth we can happily " walk together/' 
because we are " agreed" on the basis of a true spiritual 
philosophy. So far, then, we are friends. 

But may I now ask your attention to some correla- 
tive questions which we inevitably encounter on the 
accepted basis of this spiritual reasoning? If, with 
Paul, we believe that there is a spiritual body, must we 
not also believe that there is something inside of that 
body ? To believe differently, would be like saying 
that a jug is designed merely to. have an outside and an 
inside, the inward space being filled with nothing. 
Most persons would ask "Is that all? Is the vessel 
not designed to contain something ? Was it not made 
to hold, against all parts of its inward surfaces, some- 



6 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

thing besides tTie interior of a jug? The thought of 
inventing and owning a jug merely for the purpose 
of holding a jug, is an imbecility. And it would not be 
less absurd to believe that the " spiritual body" is 
destitute of a more interior substance. A body is de- 
signed to hold something called " spirit." 

If Paul w r as right, then he stood at least in the ves- 
tibule of that spiritual temple which we have entered 
and searched through and through. We have investi- 
gated and mapped down the "experience" with as 
much gratitude and truthfulness as can be found in any 
ancient Testaments. I make this affirmation with per- 
fect calmness of pulse, and with no heat on my brain; 
and I know that I shall be ready at any time to re- 
consider reasons, uttered by persons who feel themselves 
not yet satisfied, why positions here taken may not be 
sound in science and philosophy. 

Your attention is asked to the logical conclusion that, 
if there be a spiritual body in every man, as Paul said, 
there must be a fine invisible something treasured up 
within it. Let us see, now, if we can ascertain what 
that treasured " something" is. 

Man is a triple organization. This fact is established 
in two ways — (1) by the concurrent observations of all 
seers, sensitives, and mediums, and (2) by the phenome- 
nal developments of individual men and women. Man's 
external body is a casing, composed of the aggregate 
refinements of the grossest substances. We will name 
the physical body " iron," merely to give it a just 
classification and position in relation to mind and 
spirit. Next, we find that there is an intermediate or- 
ganization — which Paul called the "spiritual body' — 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 7 

composed of still finer substances, the ultimatum of the 
coarser elements which make up the corporeal or " iron 
organization." The combination of the finer substances 
composing the intermediate or spiritual body, being so 
white and shining, may be called the " silver organiza- 
tion/ 5 The inmost, or inside of this silvery bodv. (which 
interior Paul definitely said nothing about,; is the 
immortal " golden image." I use the term " golden 
image," because that metal is just now exceedingly valu- 
able in commerce, and goes directly to men's uppermost 
feelings and interests. Yes, a golden image ! You can- 
not obtain it from stock-jobbers in Wail street. And 
yet it is there when you find yourself there ; you may 
also see it deep down in the spiritual vault of a brother 
speculator ; for whomsoever you meet, and wherever 
you meet, that person, like yourself, contains, against 
the lining surfaces of his spiritual body, the " golden 
image," which, let us thank the Eternal, cannot be bar- 
tered away on 'Change ! 

Paul did not directly speak of what we have been 
philosophically taught to call "the spirit." Fully per- 
suaded am I that you cannot escape the conclusion that 
there must be something within the "spiritual body; 75 
and, if so, you Christians might as well "agree" with 
our classification of the different parts of man, as to 
take any other. We call the inmost " spirit" — signi- 
fying the finest, the super-essential portion of man's 
nature, composed of " all imperaona] principles," which 
flow from the Deific center of this glorious universe, 
taking a permanent residence within the spiritual body 
which they fill and exalt, just as the elements of the 
spiritual body live within this corporeal or "iroo 



8 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

organization." which is composed of mineral, vegetable, 
and animal atoms and vitalities. 

Now you may be prepared to take some other steps 
in the path of spiritual discovery. What are they ? 
Take care now where you step — because, if you are in 
reality a believer in Paul's authority, then you are on 
the high road to what is termed " Spiritualism." If 
you are not a Bible-receiver, then other reasonings and 
evidences will be necessary to promote your progress. 
Now, mark ! If you be truly a receiver of Paul's 
beautiful spiritual statements (which we accept, not as 
revelations, but because they agree with the facts of 
the spiritual body,) then you stand upon so much of our 
platform as regards the philosophy that a body is a 
substance. No substance is no body. Nothing cannot 
exist. Existence and substance are convertible terms- 
one means and necessitates the other. Something — i. e. 
substance — always exists. If Paul was right, then the 
spiritual body is a fact not only, but it is a substantial 
fact ! That is, the spiritual body is a substance — the 
under-fact, the " silver lining" of this physical and 
cloudy organism. If it be an under-fact — a real and 
substantial body — it is no fiction. 

Now, let us take another step in this logical path. 
You accept that the spiritual body is a substance. But 
do you not know that substance, on the simple rules of 
science and philosophy, implies the associate properties 
of both weight and force. Substance cannot exist with- 
out weight, however inappreciable ; and weight involves 
force, however fine and unimaginable to man's physical 
thought or touch. All this follows if Paul told the 
truth. 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 9 

Now, take one more step. If the spiritual body be 
a substance, and if a substance possess the property of 
v:eight> it follows that such weight can never be moved 
without force. The finest substance, with the least 
weight, requires the highest force. This principle is 
plain and simple as the common school-boy's logic, and 
yet it supports the granite basis of the whole Harmonial 
Philosophy concerning " spirit/' which the churches 
everywhere are stealthily accepting and promulgating 
as their own long-entertained doctrine of immor- 
tality ! 

If chere be a spiritual body, which is a very attenu- 
ated substance, and if this imperceptibly fine substance 
have a delicate weight, and if force be required to move 
the aerial weight, then I ask " What will be your next 
and most important conclusion V This is your next step : 
That a body so organized, so essentially substantial, 
and so inseparably linked with a fine force, must exist 
somewhere and occupy space ! If any lawyer among 
you can escape this last conclusion, if any materialist 
can go through another orifice in logic, why, I am ready 
to "skedaddle" through the same remarkable opening. 
I want the " whole truth" as much as any one else can 
want it. Therefore, if you can make a philosophical 
retreat from this military line of logic, I will promise 
to throw down my arms and run with you. 

Do not let the simplicity of the philosophy grow 
weak in your thoughts. If the spiritual body be any- 
thing, it is something; if something, it is substantial ; 
if substantial, it occupies space ; if it occupy space, 
then all of our revealments with reference to a " Sum- 
mer-Land" in the bosom of Space, will be inseparable 



10 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

from your convictions of probability. Thus while we 
are crushing and "pulverizing creeds" in God's mill of 
Progressive Truth, we do vastly more labor to secure 
the "fraternization of the spiritual affections of man- 
kind." 

Again let us look into the Apostle's logic. Paul 
says of the spiritual body, " Sown in dishonor" — in 
imperfection, in corporeal impurity — but " raised in glo- 
ry." The familiar word "glory" means "brightness." 
Raised in brightness ! Christians! Do you believe it? 
I believe it in my heart. Do you ? Let us know who 
is the " infidel." I have an extensive reputation for 
being an infidel in the bad sense of the word. To me 
this reputation is very amusing; because I believe so 
much I Why, I am utterly discarded and clisfellow- 
shipped by the infidels of the old school. The foxes have 
more, holes than I have pillows among the skeptics. 
But do not misapprehend my meaning. My whole soul 
shrinks from contact with sectarian Christians or with 
so-called Christian Spiritualists. Christians, so styled 
in the newspapers, are the most stupid in spiritual 
principles, and the most unmistakable materialists I 
have yet met with in society. Infidels, on the contrary, 
are accessible and decently fraternal. They can 
and will think, although they sometimes look very sul- 
len and seem over-much disappointed, because they have 
been too long reasoning wrong end foremost — have 
logically consigned themselves to a total death when 
they lie down to die — and, of course, they unani- 
mously consider that their long-cherished views are 
tenable and incontrovertible. Hence they reject 
Spiritualism. I have a friend-, however, who, although 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 11 

a confessed skeptic, said that, on the whole, he " guessed 
"he would rather not be annihilated at death." " Why 
not?" I asked. With spontaneous simplicity he re- 
plied, that lie was afraid he would " regret it after- 
wards /" 

In that response I saw the inborn remonstrance, the 
intuitive protest, which the Divine source puts up 
through the human consciousness. Miserable, limping, 
materialistic logic can do nothing against Intuition. It 
does not want to be annihilated, because there is for it 
no such destiny. It conceives of it as possible only to 
what is ponderable and perishable. Converse with 
a sensualist to-morrow, or talk with persons who 
live a materialistic life, who are immersed in quadruped 
habits — ask them, and they seem to know nothing con- 
cerning « spirit" and the " After-Life/' simply because 
they have not been awakened to the subject. But a 
true soul-born conversation invariably touches their 
organs of hope. 1 have never met men or women, 
though buried in the mud and mire of circumstances, 
but would, when spiritually and affectionately ap- 
proached, respond like the strings of an iEolian-harp, 
to the doctrine that the " Summer-Land" belongs to 
them as much as to the finest, most respected, and most 
beautiful person on the globe. 

The spiritual doctrine teaches that the inmost man 
is " a spirit," which flows through these nerve-sensa- 
tions ; which easily contracts and expands these sturdy, 
muscles ; which causes the blood to throb throughout the 
frame; which thinks and reasons; which feels better, no- 
bler, and purer than the forms, forces, and things about 
it; which teaches the intellect and the heart to recog- 



12 DEATH AND THE AFTER LIFE. 

nize something higher than the fleeting circumstances to 
which it is harnessed, and by which it is constrained 
to assist in drawing the burdens of society. That is 
" spirit." It is the invisible presence of the Divine in 
the visible human. It is the only and all-sufficient 
Incarnation. Degradations and depravities never reach 
that which lives within the " spiritual body." Dis- 
cords and great evils are arrested at the surface ; they 
cling and adhere ; they unhappily besmear, cover up, 
disfigure, and sometimes almost break down the cita- 
del ; but they never get inward far enough to kill the 
proprietor ! 

Let us not forget our major-proposition. If this 
human inmost be " spirit," (comparable to a golden 
image); if on the outside of this spirit there be a 
"body;" if this impalpable body be a " substance ;" if 
this inter-affinitized substance require " force" to 
move it ; if space be necessary for such a personality to 
exist in — then, I ask, why may there not be something 
beautiful in the idea of Death? Not dreadful and 
appalling, but really beautiful ? Not heart-chilling, 
but truly genial and warming? Not annihilating, but 
uplifting and encouraging to every organ and function 
of the soul ? If this spiritual doctrine be a fiction, then 
you are shut up to atheistical extinguishment when you 
lie down to die. But the opposite road is open before 
! you. On this highway you meet your personal apotheo- 
sis ; you rise up and expand ; you go onward and God- 
ward through the illimitable space ; and you seek a 
Summer-Land — a place, in which to be ! I have no 
ambition to make proselytes. *It would not increase 
my private joys to have you believe my cherished 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 13 

thoughts. Better be converted and guided by your own 
Eeason and Intuitions. 

The Apostle says there is a " terrestrial" and a 
"celestial." Do you believe it? I do; not, however, 
because Paul said it; but because I find it in the Book 
of Nature. "We are sown in corruption/ 5 Every- 
body's spirit knows that to be true. But at last the 
chemistry of death approaches and begins its work — 
then oxygen, and nitrogen, and hydrogen, and magnet- 
ism, and electricity, and the resultant heat, and all 
ponderables that make up our corporeal existence, bid 
"good-by' v to each other — then the eyes sink back, and 
the outside senses are closed, and all the elements 
which formed the body bid "an eternal farewell." 
This is real experience*. If we exclude the air, by 
placing the body in a hermetically-sealed encasement, 
you can bend over and look upon the yet undecomposed 
figure. That is all ; nothing more. The confined 
atoms and elements have no further interest for each 
other. The pulseless hand is no longer extended to 
grasp yours ; the once beaming eyes do not open ; the 
ear will not again vibrate to your heart-stricken ap- 
peals or loving accents ; the stiffened nose can no more 
feel the touch and enjoy the perfume of the favorite 
plant. Appalling silence ! All is closed forever. 
What a spiritualizing and holy solemnity is that which 
pervades the chamber of Death ! What a dark, fearful, 
haunted room is that where Death is — to those who 
know not this glorious Gospel of the After-Life ! 

But what a blessed roseate atmosphere fills all the 
heavenly spaces — from the death-room onward to 
Summer realms beyond the stars — to those who know 



14 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

that this basis is established in God's truth ! Such 
mediums and fortunate reasoners have joy and peace 
within. Their inmost hearts are filled with emotions 
of thanksgiving; and why? Because to the seer of 
spiritual truth, " Death is swallowed up in victory." 
The Spiritualist has nothing . whatever to do with 
Death. He is emphatically alive — alive and happy 
throughout. Women and men past the " meridian 
of life/ 5 who receive these new spiritual teachings, are 
kindling and blooming up into youth again ! They see 
that this pathway of truth is paved with perfectly beau- 
tiful scientific facts and doctrines — Progress, leading 
from man's inmost " spirit" to the Summer-Land. 

And now, having disposed of these general consid- 
erations, I will tell you what I have seen. I will not 
give descriptions of phenomena from my supposition or 
imagination. I suppose that I need not repeat that I 
have had the peri-scopic and clairvoyant ability to see 
through man's iron coating for the past fifteen years ; 
neither need I again remark that, within the last 
twelve years, the result of the exercise of this faculty 
has come to be to me an "education." I have stood by 
the side of many death-beds; but a description of 
manifestations in one case will suffice for the whole. 

I found that the physical body grew negative and 
cold vi proportion as the elements of the spiritual body 
grew warm and positive. Suppose a human being lying 
in the death-bed before you. Persons present not see- 
ing anything of the beautiful processes of the interior, 
are grief-stricken and weeping. This departing one is 
a beloved member of the family. But there, in the 
corner of the room of sorrow, stands one who sees 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 15 

through the outward phenomena presented by the dying 
one, and what do you suppose is visible ? To the outward 
senses the feet are there ; the head on the pillow ; 
and the hands clasped, out-stretched, or crossed over* 
the breast. If the person is dying under or upon 
cotton, there are signs of agony, the head and body 
changing from side to side. Never allow any soul to 
pass out of the physical body through the agony of 
cotton or feathers either beneath or in folds about the 
sufferer. 

Suppose the person is now dying. It is to be a 
rapid death. The feet first grow cold. The clairvoy- 
ant sees right over the head what may be called a 
magnetic halo — an ethereal emanation, in appearance 
golden, and throbbing as though conscious. The body 
is now cold up to the knees and elbows, and the ema- 
nation has ascended higher in the air. The legs are 
cold to the hips, and the arms to the shoulders, and 
the emanation, although it has not arisen higher in the 
room, is more expanded. The death-coldness steals 
over the breast, and around on either side, and the 
emanation has attained a higher position nearer the 
ceiling. The person has ceased to breathe, the pulse is 
still, and the emanation is elongated and fashioned in 
the outline of the human form ! Beneath, it is con- 
nected the brain. The head of the person is internally 
throbbing — a slow, deep throb — not painful, but like 
the beat of the sea. Hence the thinking faculties are 
rational while nearly every part of the person is dead! 
Owing to the brain's momentum, I have seen a dying 
person, even at the last feeble pulse-beat, rouse impul- 
sively and rise up in bed to converse with a friend, but 



16 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

the next instant he was gone — his brain being the last 
to yield up tberlife-principles. 

The golden emanation, which extends up midway to 
the ceiling, is connected with the brain by a very fine 
life-thread. Now the body of the emanation ascends. 
Then appears something white and shining, like a hu- 
man head; next, in a very few moments, a faint outline 
of the face divine ; then the fair neck and beautiful 
shoulders; then, in rapid succession, come all parts of 
the new body down to the feet — a bright, shining 
image, a little smaller than this physical body, but a 
perfect prototype or reproduction, in all except its dis- 
figurements. The fine life-thread continues attached to 
the old brain. The next thing is the withdrawal of the 
elective principle. When this thread snaps, the spiritual 
body is free! and prepared to accompany its guardians 
to the Summer-Land. Yes, there is a spiritual body ; it 
is sown in dishonor and raised in brightness. 

There are persons in the room of mourning ; they 
gather around ; they close the sightless eyes, and 
friendly hands commence those final preparations with 
which the living consecrate the dead. The clairvoyant 
sees the newly-arisen spiritual body move off toward a 
thread of magnetic light which has penetrated the 
room ! There is a golden shaft of celestial light touch- 
ing this spiritual body near its head. That delicate 
chain of love-light is sent from above as a guiding 
power. The spiritual being is asleep — like a just-born, 
happy babe ; the eyes are closed; and there seems to 
be no consciousness of existence. It is an unconscious 
slumber. In many cases this sleep is long ; in others, 
not at all. The love-thread now draws the new-born 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 17 

body to the outside door. A thought-shaft descends 
upon one who is busy about the body. This person is 
all at once "impressed" to open the door of the dwell- 
ing and to leave it open for a few moments. Or, some 
other door of egress is opened; and the spiritual body 
is silently removed from the house. The thread of ce- 
lestial attraction gathers about and xlraws it obliquely 
through the forty-live miles of air. It is surrounded 
by a beautiful assemblage of guardian friends. They 
throw their loving .arms about the sleeping one, and on 
they all speed to the world of Light ! Clairvoyants 
and mediums see this ; and they know it is true. Many- 
are the witnesses to these celestial facts. 

Again, I remind you that if there is a spiritual 
body, it must be something ; if something, it must have 
an existence and a position somewhere in space ; if in 
space, it must follow the laws of space, including time, 
and have a relative as well as an absolute conscious- 
ness. 

At the battle of Fort Donelson I saw a soldier 
instantly killed by a cannon-ball. One arm was 
thrown over the high trees; a part of his brain went 
a great distance ; other fragments were scattered about 
in the open field ; his limbs and fingers flew among the 
dead and dying. Now what of this man's spiritual 
body ? I have seen similar things many times — not 
deaths by cannon-balls, but analogous deaths by sud- 
den accidents or explosions. Of this person whose body 
was so utterly annihilated at Fort Donelson, I saw that 
all the particles streamed up and met together in the 
air. The atmosphere was filled with those golden par- 
ticles— emanations from the dead — over the whole bat- 



18 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

tie-field. About three-quarters of a mile above the 
smoke of the battle-field — above all the "clouds that 
lowered'' upon the hills and forests of black discord, 
there was visible the beautiful accumulation from the 
fingers and toes and heart and brain of that suddenly- 
killed soldier. There stood the new spiritual body 
three-quarters of a mile above all the discord and din 
and havoc of the furious battle ! And the bodies of 
many others were coming up from other directions at 
the same time; so that from half a mile to three and 
five miles in the clear, tranquil air, I could see spiritual 
organisms forming and departing thence in all direc- 
tions. First the face, then the head, then the neck, 
then the shoulders and arms — the whole smaller than 
the natural body, but almost exactly like it — so that 
you could instantly recognize the form and features of 
your old friend, only you would say, " Why, James, 
how improved you are ! You look brighter and more 
beautiful, don't you ? Your countenance has more quiet 
and love in it." So entirely natural is " the spiritual 
body" which the good God has wisely planned and 
caused to rise out of this terrestrial filth and corporeal 
corruption! 

The man so killed — what was his sensation ? It 
was for, the time suspended. To him, existence was 
nothing. Just think of the case. He was a healthy, 
stout, strong Illinois mechanic, who had bravely gone 
out with his loaded musket to do battle for the " Stars 
and Stripes" which shall never go down ! His sudden 
death was to his consciousness what the hammer is to 
a piece of flint. If a hard flint is struck quick enough, 
it will fly into impalpable powder. If struck with less 



DEATH A"XD THE AFTER-LIFE. 19 

speed, it would not be crushed nor destroyed. It is the 
suddenness of the stroke that surprises " cohesion" in the 
flint, as the cannon-ball for the moment annihilated the 
" sensation" of individuality in the man. Individuality 
usually returns, in cases of sudden death, after a few 
days in the homes of the Summer-Land. They are 
usually guided to some Brotherhood, to some Hos- 
pitalia, or to some open-armed Pavilion, and there they 
are watched and tenderly cared for, as are all who- ar- 
rive from lower worlds. When the time approaches for 
the spirit's awakening, then celestial music, or some 
gentle manipulation, or the murmuring melody of dis- 
tant streams, or something like breathing passes made 
over the sleeping one, causes " sensation" to return, 
and thus the new comer is introduced to the Summer- 
Land. 

So Professor Webster was eight days and a half 
unconscious. You know that, in Leverett street jail- 
yard, in Boston, he was hung according to law and 
gospel. As soon as he was pronounced good enough to 
live, they legally and religiously killed him. The sud- 
den concussion struck to the soul of the strong, healthy 
man, and he was instantly jerked out of his individual 
consciousness. For days he was spiritually watched. I 
was at the time stopping at the Brattle House, in Cam- 
bridge. Mount Auburn was my daily walk ; the only 
academy, the only college I sought in which to learn 
these lessons. I went thither every day. I witnessed 
the execution of Professor Webster ; yet I was not per- 
sonally present. I saw the organization of his spiritual 
body in the air, and watched its ascension. I saw his sit- 
uation every day between the hours of ten and twelve. 



20 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

I wish now to call your attention to the arrival and 
appearance of different persons in the Summer-Land. 
We find on investigation that all the inhabitants of the 
immortal Spheres were born on Earth, Mars, Jupiter, 
Saturn, and upon the other planets which have gone 
through the process of geologic growth. 

Spirits themselves nearly all refer to terrestrial 
beginnings. But spirit itself is only manifested ; it 
never came out of terrestrial sources. Spirit, per se, is 
the universal, ever-present truth. The organization of 
the spiritual body is another question, which may come 
up for consideration on another occasion. 

It is a well-ascertained fact that persons always 
take places in the Summer-Land in accordance with 
their jnoral status, and not in accordance with their 
intellectual tastes, inclinations, or social condition. 
Place there is always a question of morals — that 
is whether the person has been, or is, spiritually loyal 
to Truth, Justice, and Liberty, and the divine laws that 
regulate social relations on the higher planes of being ; 
or whether the person has, by circumstances, or by the 
impulse of organization, been unfaithful to principles, 
and particeps criminis J or whether he is really inno- 
cent, having been the victim of a combination of unpro- 
pitious circumstances, or a sufferer from the fortuitous 
concourse of physical and spiritual accidents. In either 
case, the moral status determines the position and 
gravitation of the person in the Summer-Land. It is 
found that persons who go there with memories of con- 
scious wrong-doing, carry with them just so much 
gravitation — so much personal density and moral dark- 
ness, and persons who have committed involuntary 



DEATH AX1) THE AFTER-LIFE. 21 

wrong, although partly as the victims of others, yet 
have the same density ; but they do not suffer from the 
internal oppression which the other feels as a part of his 
own conduct. 

The accusing angel, is Memory. The theory that 
all people will sometime go before the bar of God, and 
that there is a systematic heavenly tribunal, is the 
sheerest fancy of a materialistic theology. Both God 
and Nature are with you at all times. The interior 
principle of Justice, whether you know it or not, is the 
ever-present " bar of God" at which you are arraigned 
and tried, and deathless Memory is "the accusing 
angel." It gives you the document setting forth your 
exculpation; or else it explains to you, beyond contro- 
versy, the all-sufficient grounds for your condemna- 
tion. 

The Summer-Land is vastly more beautiful than the 
most beautiful landscape of earth. Celestial waters are 
more limpid, the atmosphere more soft and genial, the 
streams are always musical, and the fertile islands there 
are ever full of meanings. The trees are not exotics. 
The birds are literally a part of the celestial clime, 
every one having its lesson of divine significance. That 
which is nothing to an idiot is a great deal to an intel- 
ligent man. That is true in common things on earth, 
and it is true to a wondrous degree in heaven. 

When a person enters there by suicide or by mur- 
der, whether legal or illegal, or however else he may 
be introduced, the question is not, how he came there, 
but what brought him ? A man who was not strong 
enough to keep another from doing him a wrong — (to 
say nothing of one who was not strong enough tokeep 



•h to kec 



22 DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 

from doing a deliberate wrong to others) is a subject 
of philanthropic care-takings and discipline. According 
to the heavenly code I ought to have something more 
than the power to be loyal to Justice and Right. I 
must be strong enough to keep any brother from injur- 
ing me, and that without ever lifting a physical weapon 
before him. My spirit should keep from harm the 
soul of my brother who may be yet encased- in bad 
circumstances, and moved by a propulsive organization. 

In the Summer-Land these delicate ideas and finely- 
shaded moral distinctions are recognized. And you will 
find yourself under a new Government — a God-code, 
instead of the laws of earthly Judges and Legislators. 
You will be surprised, and yet, most likely, you will 
say, " It is about as I had supposed." 

Religionists are highly astonished because they are 
not taken immediately into the presence of the great 
Jehovah, or cast down in the low places where they 
fry souls in cheap brimstone. Some people who have 
been in the Summer-Land for years are still prayer- 
fully expecting that the "great day of judgment" will 
come, and that they will either be " caught up" to a 
higher glory, or " snatched down" to some lower depth. 
When these persons communicate to mediums, they 
teach the notions of orthodoxy, even in the old Calvin- 
istic and perpendicular style, and you would be con- 
strained to exclaim — " What contradictions ! Am I 
to believe in Spiritualism when the mediums tell all 
sorts of contradictory things ?" And popular newspa- 
per men say : "These Spiritual things should have no 
conflict in them." "Spirits should understand their 
own world as accurately as earthly minds understand 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 23 

common affairs." So says my political friend Horace 
Greeley, and so say others who reason in that superfi- 
cial way. Now, look at earthly reports about the 
details of this war! Behold what contradictions ! 

Is it reasonable to demand universal sameness ? 
Is it natural to suppose that the man who went up from 
Africa, and the native of Turkey should each report 
from the next Sphere exactly what an American would 
who died the day before yesterday, with all the twists 
and advantages of education in his memory? Same- 
ness is what men demand who call themselves " rea- 
sonable !" 

The point now is, the evils of general society and 
the evils of individual passion, the unclean spirits and hu- 
man demons, originate in the mud and mire of outward 
circumstances and hereditary organization. These 
mold and fashion mankind according to their own 
image and likeness. Sweet and good circumstances, 
however thickly they may cluster about, amount to 
almost nothing to a bad mental organization. I have 
heard worldly men say that they would be happy if 
they could have this and that — carpets, flowers, pic- 
tures, fast horses, and a great house in the city. Such 
men have something wrong in the head. They were 
born in bankruptcy and social discord. Society, to 
such persons, is merely a fleeting rush and a momentary 
flutter. " Circumstances" do not much control such cha- 
racters, because their fathers and mothers gave them 
propulsive mental organizations, which no combination 
of circumstance has yet been able to fashion into bet- 
ter shapes. But this discord in character simply 
adheres ; it does not inhere ; hence on this pouiLwe 



PQiflkw 



24: DEATH AND THE AFTEtt-LIFE. 

differ with the whole religious world. Modern liberal 
clergymen are almost with us. Total depravity has 
gone down in the market, notwithstanding all the city 
evils and the tremendous civil war. There is scarcely 
a minister who will reaffirm the old doctrine of Baxter, 
Calvin, and John Knox. They get quietly over it. 
They somehow feel ashamed of having accused " the 
golden image !" It looks like an unprovoked slander 
against the finest piece of work that ever came from 
the heavens to mankind. I do not wonder that clergy- 
men are " ashamed" of total depravity. They will 
presently be ashamed of many other things. 

We hold that these evils, these errors, these sins 
which arise out of the abdomen, from the region of 
physical phrenology, from the region of conditions, and 
out of social circumstances, will increase the spirit's 
gravitation beyond the grave. By your status you 
elect yourself at death to the place where you will be 
at home — be it good, bad, or indifferent— you will be 
in your own proper and congenial "place," as are the 
fishes in the water and the birds in the air. If you feel 
mentally satisfied, like the sightless fish in the Ken- 
tucky cave, to dwell amid truths without eyes, the good 
Father and Mother will have no objection. So in the 
Summer-Land, where there are infinitely more truthful- 
ness and freedom. If a spirit choose to be foolish, 
there is no arbitrary law against his choice. But, ever 
and anon, he comes under the genial influences of 
celestial teachers, and thus, slowly, he is brought out 
from his interior hiding-places, and his mind is at last 
fully awakened. Randall's Island, near this cit , gives 



■ 



DEATH AND THE AFTER-LIFE. 25 

off youthful candidates who receive the attentions of 
very sweet and beautiful celestial missionaries. 

Happiness very slowly comes to one who persists in 
the states of discord. Beautiful music, the fragrance 
of flowers, the luxurious melody of singing birds, and 
the musical voices of many waters, come only when you 
internally deserve them. Ten thousand years may pass 
before one's internals are sufficiently pure and bright. 
Some will find on their spirit-surfaces a shadow, a 
feeling of unrest, and an appearance of nebulous black- 
ness. And there are persons in the Summer-Land who 
have an atmosphere surrounding their spiritual bodies 
that similar characters would be ashamed to wear in 
this world. It is all the logical consequence of wrong 
and evil conditions in which the persons lived and died. 
But there is no despair among the leaders and members 
of the celestial Brotherhoods. 

Of these, and concerning domestic scenes in the 
After-life, I shall hereafter speak. 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 



" In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would 
have told yon." 

It does not as yet seem to be a part of human 
belief that the race should make progress as rapidly, as 
broadly, as completely in spiritual realities as in science 
and the common concerns of a very common world. 
The idea generally prevails that the race must repose 
on " faith/' and stand eternally still in all matters per- 
taining to the mysteries of God, while it is esteemed 
right to grow and improve in all things else and in all 
other directions. This subtile absurdity has crawled 
all the way through every creed in the religious world. 

All progress in science and general education within 
the last century points toward the discovery and dis- 
closures of the Summer-Land. All the important and 
refining sciences, which verge on the spiritual, have 
come up within the last quarter of a century. Our 
navigators have within the last hundred years plowed 
through all the seas of the globe, have sought know- 
ledge of the obscure, sequestered rivers, in remotest 
countries, and many of them have returned to tell us 
faithfully of their scenes and experiences. Only now 
and then a man has fallen upon the altar of discovery. 
Every such spirit has been carried through the North- 
West passage to a world of grander dimensions. The 
interiors of the earth have been evoked. In answer to 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 27 

practical prayers they Lave divulged their arcana, and 
their inmost secrets have become our every-day facts, 
" familiar as household words." Great mountains have 
been scaled, and distant heavenly planets have been 
measured ; the expansiveness and perfections of the 
universe, above us and around, have been searched and 
mapped by our astronomers; and the familiar " sun" 
has been induced to become party to the finest pencil- 
ings, so that when we ^tand before the photographic 
magician, coming within the field of his camera and at 
the focus of his mystic glass, we seem to be facing a 
supernatural realm. The light instantly projects a sha- 
dow, paints your picture, and perchance also that of a 
departed friend, on the susceptible surface of an insen- 
sate plate. Thus all human progress in the imitative, 
in the speculative, and in the absolute, demonstrate the 
practicability of further discoveries with reference to 
the great future home of the spirit. We find, in search- 
ing history, that human nature has been blessed, ever 
and anon, with inspirations that convey the elements 
and rudiments of truths that bloom in higher degrees 
of life. Instead, therefore, of rejecting the germs of 
mythology or the teachings of poetry, we are learning 
rapidly to receive them as essentially significant. In- 
stead of impoverishing ourselves by a ruthless rejection 
of the multitudinous productions in the art, and science, 
and poetry, and music of the past, we secure to our- 
selves great opulence by learning that human genius, in 
every age, when at the moment of its incubation, pro- 
jects the germs and foregleams of great truths which 
live beyond the tomb; so that poetry and music more 
especially, and the singing of beautiful birds, and the 



28 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

breathings of flowers, and the loving songs of laughing 
rivulets — and the great thoughts that come pouring into 
your ideality from these sturdy and grave mountains — 
all enter into the rudiments of that higher education 
which is designed to be completed beyond the stars. 

I affirm, therefore, that there is no absolute imagi- 
nation — that a total falsehood is an impossibility ; that 
the finest imagination is, in its spiritual essence, the 
nearest approach to an actual truth. However gro- 
tesque, however absurd, yet divest the inspiration ol 
absurdity and grotesqueness, and lo! you find tht. 
sweetest whispering of the eternal God. 

If you will permit me to speak with reference to 
myself, I will say that I have never read a poet in my 
life v not, I think, more than three pages of any such 
writings. (I have had an object in this.) But I do not 
expect that this will be true of me eight or ten years 
hence ; for I now intend to cultivate some acquaintance 
with the externals of these inspirations. For, as I 
grow, I desire more and more to know, in the external, 
what the great writers and thinkers of the world have 
done; and already I feel grateful for what I have 
interiorly seen and clairvoyantly learned in the great 
human sphere about me. I have not read " The Epic 
of the Starry Heavens," by the imaginative and inspired 
Harris, fearing that, should I read his production, it 
might enter into my memory, and thus become a portion 
of some subjective apprehensions or objective visions of 
the future. 

As many of you know, I have had a peculiar expe- 
rience ; and it is well for a moment, in justice to what 
I shall hereafter say, to allude to it. There is positively 



SCENES IN THE SLUMER- LAND. 29 

no imagination in what I shall disclose, but I leave the 
philosophy and the science of the experience to some 
future occasion. My reason for affirming that it is not 
imagination is, that I started with the conviction thai 
the kingdom of heaven was a beautifully walled-up 
city, paved with gold, with a vast throne in it some- 
where ; on the topmost throne the great " Father'' and 
Creator of men, to the right the " Son/' and on the 
opposite side the " Holy Ghost ;" while in the front, 
and all around, extending as far back as the limited popu- 
lation of the "saved" could extend — an amphitheater 
with no galleries, but all part of one immensely great 
proscenium; and that the enjoyments and occupations of 
the saints and saintesses consisted in an everlasting 
Methodist protracted meeting ! No eating, no sleeping, no 
drinking, no amusements; but praying and singing; next 
singing and praying again; and lastly, just for a change 
of the programme, praying and singing ! While over 
the parapets, near the resplendent embattlements of the 
golden wall, one could see rolling and curling up, not 
the torment of the condemned segar-smokers merely, 
but the accumulated black clouds of unmitigated misery 
from the over-populated regions of the " Devil and his 
angels" ! 

I think this orthodox picture, or something akin, 
has been in your thoughts many times. This notion 
was started early with me. But when the time came 
to pass into the "interior" by the inductions of the 
magnetic process, my thoughts soon changed. Very 
rapidly I lost all interest in everything that I had 
heard on the subject of religion ; and thus I remained, 
not desiring to acquire further external knowledge. 



30 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

This condition lasted for some four years. At length 
the time came to divulge, in book form, what had been 
accumulated by the visions of clairvoyance. Clairvoy- 
ance is the mind's telescopic- power of bringing distant 
objects close to the mind — a positive and perfectly 
certain faculty — a natural power of bringing the details 
of a distant scene as near as the flowers in the garden 
just beyond the window. However distant it seemed 
at first, the object or scene could be, by cultivation of 
the faculty, brought so near as to invite your footsteps. 
At length I became proprietor, so to say, of this cerebro- 
telescopic faculty, which before had only been loaned 
to me for occasional use, as by an artificial process. 
When I came into full and intelligent possession of 
this mental instrument, then began a series of private 
visional experiments, which I have continued from 1847 
to the present time. 

And now a word concerning my habits with refer- 
ence to these things — for my physical methods, I think, 
have a direct and important bearing upon the question. 
Whenever I wish to obtain these visional results by 
voluntary telescopic clairvoyance, I do not seek opium 
or hasheesh ; neither Arabian, Hebrew, Bohemian, or 
Gipsy incantations ; nor do I clog my digestive organs, 
nor highly stimulate my nerves; but there comes (as 
Daniel expresses it,) a period of " fasting," and of con- 
stant, though not over-urgent desire. Sometimes I 
have been obliged to continue this from four to six 
weeks before my nerve-system was perfectly still, my 
blood cool, my senses indifferent to the outer world. 
Then I could concentrate the perceptive faculties and 
bring into action all the requisite organs, and, under 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 31 

the control of intuition, direct them upon remote earthly 
objects or scenes super-terrestrial. If I had taken for 
food what is called a "generous diet/ 5 or habitually 
engaged in these mental exercises at night, I should in 
either case have distrusted my discoveries. But I 
almost never have such an experience as a dream. 

I never attempt to get visions in the night, " when 
deep sleep falleth upon men/' My exercises, on the 
contrary, are between six o'clock in the morning and 
twelve o'clock of the same day. If I do not obtain my 
clairvoyant or other experiences during those hours, 
they do not come that day; for I do not then seek 
them. But if the spirit-way is widely opened, and I 
am warmed and made enthusiastic by what I have seen 
during those hours, and feel, in my enthusiasm, that the 
after part of the day would be a luxurious gratification 
if it were similarly appropriated, I always say to my- 
self, as a law, " Thus far, and no farther ; never infringe 
upon the afternoon or night." Consequently I clo not 
write anything, or dream anything, or think anything 
of great consequence, during the after portions of the 
day ; but live in a common social way from twelve 
o'clock, M., to six o'clock on the following morning. 
This has been my mental and clairvoyant habit for years. 
I have found it to be an orderly, cool, philosophical, 
successful way of getting the best results, the largest 
amount of spiritual happiness, and the true secret of 
keeping free and healthy and young in heart and 
body and head. I can truthfully say that it has re- 
quired more self-control to repress the waves of 
heavenly joy and enthusiastic happiness that have rolled 
through my mind, and the effort has more taxed my 



32 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

mental powers, than have all the disappointments and 
inevitable trials which have come to me in the course 
of my history. Sometimes I have been powerfully 
tempted to indulge the state of clairvoyance a little too 
long ; but never have been able to sustain, with profit 
and happiness, more than three hours of such occult 
investigations and exalted contemplations. During 
those mysterious hours, however, I have acquired facts 
and knowledge of things that would make an extensive 
volume, even if written out in the fewest and poorest 
words; and yet, when attempting to record the scenes 
and facts from memory, the expression would be the 
coarsest shell — the mere physical precipitation — of the 
spiritual realities that were thus born in the mind — 
beautiful scenes and great principles struggling through 
the incarcerations of language to come in contact with 
the memories and to become part of the judgment of 
my fellow-men yet in the ordinary condition. I men- 
tion these things simply because they are psychological 
facts, and should have important bearings upon the 
general question of bodily and mental habits in con- 
nection with the exercises of the mind. 

I have met persons who said to me, " Why, Mr. 
Davis, are you not all the time conscious of the presence 
of the spiritual world V J And my answer has been, 
" No ; I could not be and live." Others have asked, 
" Are you not personally and frequently in contact with 
spiritual beings V 9 And I have replied, " No. I could 
not be frequently in contact, and yet keep physically 
healthy and be mentally able to attend to the ordinary 
duties of my life." And again some ask : " Are you 
not constantly and consciously associated with ideas, 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 33 

and thinking of great principles?" And others seem 
to think that I should appear uniformly abstract, and 
look ghostly, like the last remains of an evangelical 
minister. Far from all these opinions are the facts ; 
for I very substantially feel my feet within my boots, and 
my bodily sensations are strictly normal — are as solid 
and natural as those of any person in this assem- 
blage, and I am generally free from disease and 
abnormal conditions. 

And yet my cerebro-telescopic experiences of the 
super-mundane world have been an unbroken epic — the 
grandest spiritual poem ! Indeed, it may not be safe 
to contemplate the celestial picture in its boundless 
affluence. For now, while reverting in memory to 
these things, I feel a heat gathering on the brain and 
quickening the thoughts, like one who has realized the 
local concentration of the rays of immortal light, and 
felt their sublime breathings upon and within every 
fiber and faculty of his spirit. 

I will speak to you, therefore, as an observer to- 
night, and not as a " Seer." I will give you, in my 
own way, an account of things and places seen beyond 
the stars. Bayard Taylor would in like manner testify 
(though I shall not, perhaps, be able to use as good 
language as he) concerning his travels and discoveries 
in foreign climes. I shall discourse to you somewhat 
as does Von Humboldt in his Cosmos, giving you ac- 
counts of great mountains and valley scenes, of streams 
traced to their sources, of distant lands and tempera- 
tures, of different peoples, climates, and soils. And 
what I shall relate is as strictly in harmony with the 

facts of science, with the laws of philosophy, and the 

2* 



34 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

developments of astronomy; and I hold myself ready 
to reconcile what I may utter to-night with all scienti- 
fic and philosophical discoveries in astronomy, or 
in chemistry, or in the laws of light or color, or in the 
nature of substances, or in the secrets of growth, or in 
the properties of material organization ; for I do not 
think that spiritual truth is irreconcilable, incompati- 
ble, or out of harmony with the real laws and dis- 
coveries of science. I will leave all this, however, for 
another time and more fitting occasion. 

The Summer-Land is a world every way as actual 
as this. If you had clairvoyance enough to see into a 
person when very sick, and observe when the process 
of recuperation begins, and if you could also understand 
what is really meant by " recuperation,'' then you would 
instantly obtain a philosophical conception of how the 
Summer-Land could be developed. I believe all edu- 
cated physicians know (at least all spiritual physicians 
receive the incontrovertible doctrine) that what we 
term the " physical substances" which make up the 
physical avoirdupois of the body, are exuded, so to ex- 
press it — fabricated and emitted from the innermost of 
the nervous system — put out from within, and not laid 
on from without : that when a person is recuperating 
from disease (all day-exercises and bodily wastings 
result in disease, or in broken-down blood and tissue 
which sleep removes,) there is always a thoughtlessness 
of the brain and also a perfect stillness in the voluntary 
organs. Only in such moments is the nervous system 
under the recuperating and up-building action of the 
innermost. In such moments of physical repose, the 
spirit, working through the life of the nerves, makes 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 35 

and multiplies the tissues, out of which the strong and 
heavy parts come. The tissues are built up out of the 
invisible life of the nervous system. But what makes 
the nervous system ? These physical physicians can 
trace the nerves. But there is some hidden principle 
within the nerves, within the electricity and dynamic 
life of the nerves, within the mellow magnetism which 
covers the fine electricity — something within everything 
in you that is human and interior — a principle of recu- 
peration known only by the 'power you feel, and by the 
occasional sense of immensity in your personal exist- 
ence ! This hidden principle lies sequestered in your 
least nerves, in your finest points of life and sensation. 
It gives you all your prodigious power of will. From 
it flow all your moral feelings. It throbs through all 
parts of your being ; it cleaves through its magnetic 
and electrical vestures, acts on the nerves, out-breathes 
and condenses the tissues, and ultimately and suc- 
cessively elaborates all the physical organs which make 
up the corporeal system. 

Now, the principle of growth is identical with the 
unfoldinent of the Summer-Land. I do not wish to 
detain you upon this point, but merely desire to fix 
your thoughts on the terrestrial dynamics of the planets. 
Terrestrial magnetisms, terrestrial electricities, and 
whatever else men call " imponderables," constitute the 
nervous system of this physical universe. The universal 
nervous system holds the same relation to matter as the 
nervous system of the spirit to the physical parts of the 
body. Every physician knows that the first beginning 
of a human being is a point of nerve wrapped up in 
matter. This point of nerve is the starting-point of 



36 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

life. Next come the tissues, the fine thickness on the 
outside, then the blood begins to flow, and so on, more 
and more concrete, until the full equipped outer body 
itself is formed and ready for parturition. 

The spiritual world is made from life-points sent 
out from the chemical coalitions of the planets. Thus 
the Summer-Land becomes a literal truth in harmony 
with the nervo-astronomy of the universal system. 

It may seem to your imaginations that this spiritual 
world is afar off — that it must be a vast and remote 
existence, because astronomers have not peered into it. 
But it is my belief that astronomers, with their physical 
instruments, will, one of these fortunate future days, 
recognize the Summer-Land, and I believe, furthermore, 
that astronomers will see landscapes and physical scenes 
there more clearly than those vague images which are 
now revealed through telescopes, as existing upon the 
moon and different rolling stars. 

No, the spirit-world is not remote. We move every 
moment in its presence. This earthly planet itself rolls 
in its orbit under the observation of the inhabitants of 
the Spirit-Land. The vast includes the little. The 
Summer-Land is the comprehensive sphere. Astro- 
nomically speaking, the earth is on one side of that vast 
galaxy of suns and planets termed " the milky-way," 
and directly across this great physical belt of stars, we 
find the sublime repose of the Summer-Land ; and this 
is but the receptacle of the immortal inhabitants who 
ascend from the different planets that belong to our so- 
lar system. These planets all have celestial rivers 
which lead from them toward the heavenly shores. As 
each organ in the human body holds its physical rela- 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 37 

tion to the brain by means of nerves and blood-rivers, 
so these different planets in the physical universe hold 
a currental, magnetic, and electrical relation to the 
Summer-Land, which corresponds to the brain. How 
is it that strength rises to the brain of a man from what 
he eats? It is by means of circulation. And this cir- 
culation is regulated by the law of attraction and 
repulsion ? How do spirits travel from these physical 
globes to their homes in the Summer-Land, and re- 
versely, from the Summer-Land to persons and places 
on the planets ? 

Answer : By circulation. And here, too, magnetic 
river-circulation is regulated by attraction and repul- 
sion ! Thus the analogy may be extended ad in- 
finitum. 

I did not particularly notice until 1853, that differ- 
ent seasons of the year, and different positions of our 
planet in its orbit around the sun, yield a different 
clairvoyant vision of the Summer-Land. I found that 
an observation made in mid-winter afforded a very dif- 
ferent aspect of the Spirit-World from that which would 
be obtained in May, July, or November ; and further- 
more, in the same year, I first noticed that the condition 
of the observer made a difference in what was visible ; 
therefore it became necessary to adopt methods and 
conditions which would enable the clairvoyant to mark 
the particular sections of the Summer-Land that came 
within the range of vision in accordance with the dif- 
ferent months of the year. From that time to this, I 
have been regulated by the discovery that the rolling 
of this terrestrial planet, in its orbit around the sun, 
affects the sweep of the clairvoyant sight in many in- 



38 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

stances, furnishing unexpectedly a new conception of a 
familiar scene, and bringing to light other territories 
in the heavens before unknown. The Spirit-Land has 
a firmament. It is circular, and its vast firmament is 
filled with stars, suns, and satellites. It rolls in the 
blue immensity. The sky there is not without its clouds. 
They change very much like the clouds of our tropics; 
yet they do not much resemble them. The changes are 
like those in southern skies ; but the clouds themselves 
are very different. 

Among my first observations in the direction of the 
Spirit-Land, I discerned a river which seemed to flow 
across the open aerial space and pour into the far dis- 
tant bosom of that heavenly world. It was a river 
made of various streams that flowed out from planets, 
which blended and widened and expanded into a great 
sea, and thus became the flowing element of perfect 
beauty in the land of spirits. That celestial river is as 
visible to the clairvoyant perception as the Hudson, the 
East River, or any other water that can be seen by the 
natural eye on the globe. It flows away far beyond 
any distance that I have power to trace. It seemed 
like a celestial Gulf Stream, " but whither it goeth I 
know not." I only know that it is one of the sources 
of unutterable melody. It seems to give out music from 
all its variegated margins, and to yield lessons also, 
because on several occasions, vast congregations were 
visible on the shores, learning something beautiful con- 
cerning its harmonious sounds. What they learned I 
cannot tell. I only saw that after listening and con- 
versing and reposing for an hour ('or what seemed to 
me to be that length of time,) they rose all at once; 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 39 

they seemed to be many thousands — a vast assemblage 
— and then also arose their songs, and those songs, 
blending with the music of that wonderful water, 
seemed to me to fill the whole universe with melody ! 
So full of joy was my heart that I lost all spiritual 
power either to see or hear ; and so suddenly did I re- 
turn to the common state that I could not but ask the 
person who just then entered the room, whether he had 
heard that music! "No," he replied. "Indeed!" 
said I. "Didn't you hear anything?" "No." So real 
and so distinct was the sound I could scarcely believe 
my friend's denial. 

In 1854 1 had an opportunity, for the first time, to 
contemplate a celestial garden. It was unlike any- 
thing I had ever seen in this world. The Garden of 
the Hesperides, of which we dream, only vulgarly rep- 
resents the beautiful fact. When I saw the immense 
landscape and the innumerable beauties that come up 
from the soil, and the labyrinth of leafage which 
gathered upon the vision to the right of the scene, I 
could not but ask, " Will some one tell me the extent V s 
After a few moments a cerebro-telegraphic dispatch 
came into the mind, whispering distinctly, "It would 
reach from here to Scotland — near four thousand miles 
in length — five hundred miles in width." It seemed to 
be a far-extending avenue of flowers and beautiful 
trees, and there seemed no limit to the number of 
persons that were walking leisurely, lovingly, arm-in- 
arm ; and oh ! the thousands of beautiful children that 
were at play through the devious labyrinths of that 
vast heavenly park ! 

Now let us reason for a moment. Christians be- 



4) SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

lieve, or profess to believe, that, " In our Father's 
house are many mansions." This faith is based in 
reality j or else it is false, and there is, or there is not a 
mansion or a house " eternal in the heavens." Is that 
Scriptural language figurative, or is it literal ? Does 
it mean anything ? You, who so strenuously believe 
the Bible, say that I am an infidel. But I now ask you 
who is the infidel ? Your Christian poetry says: 

" There is a land of pure delight, 
Where saints immortal reign ; 
Eternal day excludes the night, 
And pleasures banish pain." 

Now I ask every professed Christian, Do you stand 
prepared to repudiate the fact affirmed in your poetry? 
Who is infidel to-night? Your highest authority in the 
Church and in the Bible said, " In my Father's house 
are many mansions/ 5 He said also that that house was 
built without hands. Do you believe it ? Do you be- 
lieve anything on the subject ? If you do, then you 
have at least the rudiments of an education which you 
ought to have perfected by this time into some reasona- 
ble comprehension of what the Father has, " without 
hands," spanned out for you beneath the unfolded 
heavens. 

But to return. In the trees of that vast celestial 
Park I heard the songs of birds, such as I had not 
heard from any species of birds in this world. In 1855 
the songs of these birds first caught the clairaudient ear. 
This power of hearing, superadded to the telescopic, 
gave all the more perfection and actualness to the ob- 
servation. These birds resemble, to some extent, the 
birds of this planet under the equator. In plumage, 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 41 

however, they were unlike. I saw celestial birds that 
excluded all rays except the yellow. They were singu- 
larly, wonderfully yellow — quite different from the hue 
of the canary. It seemed as though composed of yellow 
crystalline air. I could see the nervous systems of 
these birds — their whole physical interior — they were 
so transparent. They were, I observed, swift in their 
flight. I also saw a bird which excludes all rays save 
that of blue, and that looked like a diamond cut out of 
pure, ethereal immensity. I never could have imagined 
anything so marvelously expressive of pure, immense, 
heavenly love ! This particular bird was a representa- 
tive, I saw, of universal private affection. The yellow 
bird was also a representative. It had a great mean- 
ing — the mellower affection which comes from wisdom. 
The songs of these birds echoed from the Concilium — a 
place where minds who had gathered from the past, 
occasionally meet as in a Brotherhood for delibera- 
tions. 

1 inquired concerning the flowers, of which there 
were innumerable varieties, different from any that I 
had seen on earth, except one, which somewhat resem- 
bled the violet. All others were new r and wonderful. 
There were also curious vines that grew all over very 
lofty trees ; instead of leaves, the vines gave out count- 
less throbbing flowers. Each corolla pulsated like a 
harp, and when I looked more intimately and carefully, 
I saw that every flower seemed to be conscious that it 
was part of a Divine life and plan. 

Along the River, of which I first spoke, I saw wiiat 
appeared to be grasses, but they were not such as I have 
seen on f arth, and yet they were emanations from the 



42 SCENES m THE SUMMER-LAND. 

heavenly soil. They were what might be termed mossy- 
grasses, but the fibers were silken, and reflected the 
rainbow-colors of the diamond. The exquisitely fine 
fibers, composing the mossy grasses along the margin 
of the aerial Gulf Stream, gave off a purple brilliancy 
which was mellowed softly down, until it seemed to lose 
itself in a sort of atmospheric immensity of its own ! As 
I gazed, it seemed to blend and lose itself within innu- 
merable seas of color ! I have tried to get some repeti- 
tion of the effect of that color by visiting our Galleries 
of Painting ; but I have seen nothing like it on canvas 
in the pictures of any earthly artist. Church's " Heart 
of the Andes" — the deep, rich, immense colors of the 
Cordilleras, and the infinite repose expressed in the 
marvelous depths of that picture — seem to be the merest 
physicalism compared with that which, in 1855, was 
first reflected upon the cerebro-telescopic eye ! And 
then, to make sure, twice in that year it was sought and 
seen again, and also several times since : and in every 
instance it only became more perfect, different only in 
additions — no disappearing, no transformations, no 
"shifting scenes." 

Sometimes I have visited the scenic transformations, 
as exhibited in the New York theaters. I once went 
to Laura Keene's, to see if I could, by witnessing the 
representation of fairy lands, &c, get something like a 
hint of that better country. The display was unsatis- 
factory, though brilliant and successful. In those dra- 
matic representations of spirits, and in attempted 
supernatural exhibitions on the stage, I have never seen 
anything at all to be compared with what is positive 
reality in the other world. The dissolving views, which 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 43 

are exhibited on the stage as best illustrations of the 
spiritual, I have never seen in the Spirit-Land. The 
magical opening and closing of flowers, for example, 
and spirits coming out of unfolding plants, and the elves 
and little sprites which are dramatically represented, 
as in the myths and superstitions of Ireland and of the 
ancient Britons, are nothing like the permanent repre- 
sentations of the Spirit-World. Flowers never magic- 
ally open there, and plants do not give off little human 
beings. I never saw trees changing their location or 
leafage ; never saw anything that looked like transmu- 
tation or enchantment ; but instead, solid, sturdy life 
and progressive growth in the " house not made with 
hands." 

There is an Island, which I first saw distinctly in 
1857. I was in Buffalo at the time. I found by con- 
versing with a Brother who had gone there — James 
Victor Wilson — that they called it the Island of Akro- 
panamede. It takes its name from the purposes to 
which it is devoted. It is situated in a very vast body 
of what would be called "water" in the earth-land. 
There is a spring on that island which they call " Poril- 
leum," and there is a beautiful cluster of springs some 
distance to the west which they name " The Porilla ;" 
and every one of these springs gives off exceedingly 
sweet musical sounds, which are full of unutterable sig- 
nificance. Those harmonious notes blend with the 
streamlets which lose themselves in a beautiful river 
that flows along by the flowery paths of the Hospitalia. 
This name is given to one of the temples where persons 
who had become attached to some particular thing in 
this world, so that it had become an infatuation with 



44: SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

them, are taken to be cured. It is one of the many at- 
tractive sanitary temples of reform on that beautiful 
Island. The infatuation of a person is named " Toleka." 
When a person from earth has an infatuation so strong 
as to preclude his taking interest in anything else, he 
is invited to these springs and to the temples. The 
teacher-physicians who are appointed on that Island 
are called " Apozea." I never heard or saw such words 
before, and do not know whether they correspond with 
any earthly language. I obtained the orthography of 
the words from Brother Wilson, who pronounced them 
over and over again in my listening ear. [See end 
of this pamphlet.] There are many spirit-physicians on 
the Isle of Akropanamede. 

In a very different portion of the Spirit-Land, seen 
in the. year 1856, I saw an island called "Rosalia," 
which is a region of great splendor in the midst of 
islands of less attractiveness. On that island dwelt 
persons who had never lived upon the planet Earth. It 
was said that there were on that attractive spot per- 
sons who were from the just maturing planets of Mer- 
cury and Venus. The description of that island, which 
I cannot now give in detail, would interest you, since it 
was so different from everything else that was then 
visible. 

One of the attractive islands near Rosalia is called 
"Batellos," because some educated Greeks sought its 
retirements, soon after their arrival in the Spirit-Land, 
as a suitable place to celebrate the advent on earth 
of Plato's doctrine of the Deity, including his theory of 
« Ideas." 

" Poleski" is an island, seen for the first time in 



SCENES IN THE SUMMEil-I^ND. 45 

1857, situated in another part of the Spirit-Land. It 
is frequently visited by former inhabitants of this earth, 
especially those who are still searching for U ancient 
wisdom,*' and who believe not at all in the theories and 
education of the moderns. They think that God's truth 
must be learned from those who lived in the remote 
past. To such that island is a favorite haunt — not the 
" haunt of Poets/" but of those who still seek for wis- 
dom through ancient views and old opinions. 

There is another island called "AHum," intimately 
related to the one just mentioned, where certain ancients 
went to form themselves into a Brotherhood, composed 
of persons who were born long prior to the origin of 
the Old Testament. 

" Lonalia" is the name of an island, seen for the 
first time by me in 1859, which is inhabited by young 
persons from the earth who died as Orphans. On this 
heavenly spot they are introduced to those who are 
their parents in spirit, but of whom they were not al- 
ways physiologically born on earth. In this behold a 
mystery. 

In the Spirit-Land countless families are visible. It 
seems that certain spirits are even more gregarious than 
are people in this world. Many have strong attach- 
ments of consanguinity at first, and then, forgetting or 
losing such earthly attachments, they seem to dwell, 
like old persons, in memories, and particularly enjoy 
revelations from and conversations with those who have 
lived in the Spirit-Land for many centuries. 

If you should get a communication from any one of 
these spirits, telling you that he lived in a particular 
house, in a certain street, you might be considerably 



46 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

misled, because, although they live in the Spirit- World, 
and in plain sight of this earth, yet they believe in 
memory only, and do not take interest in present actual 
things and circumstances. 

The royal circle of the Foli is a Brotherhood very 
much resembling our American Shakers. On one occa- 
sion it was observed that the members of this Brother- 
hood corresponded in spirit and faith with the Shaker 
communities, and that these were really baptized thus 
with the presence of what men call the Holy Ghost, 
making them feel more deeply assured that they were 
right in religious and communal matters. From this 
circumstance you see that people after death do not 
become instantly endowed with wisdom and freedom. 
The Spirit- World, in short, is just like this world, on a 
higher plane. 

There is a temple called the " Concilium," which, I 
believe, means the temple of affectionate thought and 
practical wisdom. In this Concilium are frequently 
and mostly heard the voices of women. They believe 
and teach principles different from those peculiar Greeks 
who gathered upon the distant islands. In this temple 
very cultured spirits assemble for the purpose of ac- 
quiring information concerning what is best to accom- 
plish upon the planet Earth, or upon Mars, or Jupiter, 
or Saturn — for all these planetary populations need to 
be frequently visited — and there, in that beautiful tem- 
ple, are gathered the wisdom, intuition, affection, hopes, 
love, poetry, and music, of multitudes of the sweetest, 
happiest, truest, most earnest and philanthropic women 
that have lived on the planet Earth. These women. 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 47 

with their companions, gather there occasionally for 
information and deliberation. 

There is a class of persons in the Spirit-World who 
are great travelers. They are almost like our gipsies. 
They form themselves into affinitive groups, and, har- 
monizing with the circulating rivers between the dif- 
ferent planets, go on protracted journeys through innu- 
merable scenes, and do not return to their pavilions 
for many years. Katie, my former companion, came 
to me, (as reported in the " Penetralia/ 5 ) and 
said that she was then to start upon a journey ; she 
knew not whither, nor when she would return, and she 
immediately began the journey, and has not yet 
returned, or I should have heard from her. She had 
joined the group of excursionists, without knowing 
whither they were going. 

Mothers have inquired to know concerning their 
little ones; whether children born before perfect matu- 
rity become persons in the Summer-Land. It is found 
that infants born from six to eight weeks before Na- 
ture's time, continue on in the Spirit- World, slowly and 
surely acquiring the personal growth they would have 
attained had they lived in the body the full number of 
years. Mothers, therefore, who go to the Spirit- World 
to meet their little darlings, must be somewhat intuitive 
to know and recognize the child that was spirit-born 
without a moment's earthly life. Again, there are wo- 
men who have had many children, who have, neverthe- 
less, never been mothers ! I was amazed when first I 
learned this, and I looked into the subject day after 
day, and persistently inquired with the greatest par- 
ticularity in order to ascertain the exact truth. In 



48 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

1858 I found, co my astonishment, that there were on 
earth certain women and men with families who have 
never yet known maternity or paternity. I found that 
real mothers conceive with the whole life and love of 
the heart, and that real fathers produce from the vitalic 
energies and magnetisms of the whole brain ; and that 
no blood-and-passion relations amount to anything to 
the progenitors beyond the tomb. So, as a consequence, 
it is seen that all the offspring of your legalized de- 
baucheries, your blood-and-passion, are likely to be 
strangers to you, and the real children of others. And 
the legalized marriage, unless it coronate the spiritual 
fact, melts, like all temporary error, at the door of the 
tomb. Your offspring, unless they be of and from your 
spirit, and therefore from God, are only physiological 
productions, so far as you are concerned — for they find 
their true parents in other homes in the eternal heavens. 
Thus those who were unmarried in this world, after 
death meet both their true mates and their spirit- 
families. 

I wish to speak a few moments more with reference 
to social life in the Summer-Land. I found, on inquiry, 
that certain kinds of idiots die like blossoms on trees 
that produce no fruit ; children who are hybrids in 
their phrenological organizations — having not even the 
germs of a mind, but only the sanguine propulsions of 
the blood which give them the instinct of the animal, 
causing them to open their mouths to eat, and to drivel 
in sign of a desire for drink ; such are but the vestiges 
of a worn out, miserable, passionate, but legalized 
marriage. 

These useless offspring come from those who are 
permitted to be debauched by the ruin-holes, cesspools 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 49 

of intemperance on earth, with no law or civil regula- 
tion positively to prevent the evil. Much of this agony 
of child-bearing results in nothing; only so much or- 
ganized clay that must go through the chemical hopper 
again, and be wrought up in the combinations of the 
physical world. Such is the fate of certain kinds of 
idiots who come from passion and intemperance. But 
in the Spirit-Land I have seen hosts and groups of 
beautiful children that were gathered to learn lessons 
from birds, and trees, and rivulets, and flowing streams. 
These happy children w r ere each gathered according to 
a name which represented the group, and over each 
assemblage was appointed an "Apozea." That is just 
what, in a very crude way, we shall endeavor to rep- 
resent in our newly-organized Children's Lyceums. 
If possible, we will have a little of the kingdom of 
heaven on the earth. Let us try in our " Lyceum" to 
make some human progress like that which is rolling 
in beautiful groups beyond the stars. 

In the Spirit- World I noticed a vast congregation 
of persons who were in this world known for their phi- 
lanthropy. Age is not represented in the physical 
aspect of a person in the other life, but wholly by the 
expression of the eye and the temper of the mind. 
" Age," as we call it, is not seen or known there. 
Those philanthropic persons receive delegates from the 
battle-fields of America. For ages those celestial Sa- 
maritans have gathered the soldiers as they came, in 
large parties at a time, direct from the cannon's mouth 
or the bayonet's point. The new-comers are slowly 
introduced to a new and a different life; and this is 
done with such gentleness, with such beautiful and 
'graceful methods ! 
3 



50 SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

But those of both sexes, who are engaged in these 
philanthropic labors, wear clothing of various appear- 
ance and of wondrous fashions, different from anything 
you would or could imagine. I have never yet seen any 
silken gauze or gossamer fabrics to compare with the 
garments there used. Many wear a peculiar flowing 
dress, which, in a moment, can be either wound about 
the person in graceful folds or taken off. This gar- 
ment, for either man or woman, is appropriate and 
beautiful beyond all imitation. 

And then the feasting which is sometimes visible in 
the Summer-Land, would give you a great joy to be- 
hold. I verily believe that never a man or woman 
would partake of what is called the " Lord's Supper" — 
never partake of the crude elderberry wine and the 
very carefully prepared unleavened bread — if they 
could see the feasting of hundreds of thousands at the 
Lord's Supper spread out on those islands, and along 
the fringed margins of those beautiful and musical 
rivers ! I never before so well knew what was meant 
when your authority and our Brother, the great Spiritual 
Reformer, said, " Consider the lilies of the field, how 
they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin ; and 
yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, 
was not arrayed like one of these." The beautiful 
truth contained in that passage was exemplified to my 
mind in my first vision of the scene of a great feast in 
the Spirit-Land. Verily, no man, or woman, or child, 
in the higher life, careth for the immediate source — 
that is, they do not give themselves thought and great 
care for the food they receive and enjoy at appropriate 
seasons. What was called " manna" in the Old Testa- 
ment is there a literal manifestation, dropping like snow 



SCENES IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 51 

from the bosom of the heavenly realm ; and as it falls 
it covers those beautiful and mossy fibers, and slowly 
becomes like the purest honey distilled from the depths 
of the upper air. The beautiful substances made from 
this manna are in all possible forms and shapes, and 
each form and shape possesses a flavor and an odor of 
its own ; out of the one substance all forms and varie- 
ties of food are made — an art in chemistry which men 
will discover in this world one of these future golden 
days. For be it remembered that the immense riches 
of an apple are not yet known, much less those of a 
peach or a berry. Mankind are but just learning to 
preserve their fruits and common berries. When we 
get where aerial emanations are granted for food, and 
when we know how to gather and " bottle up" the 
spiritual particles that float in the invisible ether amid 
the heavens, then we shall live the life of the "lilies." 

The Spirit- World is thus brought into our actual 
experience, and the very life of it is seen and realized. 
Many of these visions of things would require most 
delicate descriptions to make them acceptable to the 
common sense of the world. But I tell you that the 
existence of the Summer-Land is not more mysterious 
than the formation and existence of a man's body out 
of the invisible life of his nerves. You may not see the 
philosophy of what I have here uttered, but it is as 
positive a science and is as literally true as that twice 
five make ten. And I fully believe that the existence 
and actualities of the next sphere will become a part 
of science, and that its philosophy will be as plain as 
the existence of such planets as Mars, Jupiter, and 
Saturn. 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND- 



" That was not first which is spiritual, but the natural ; afterward the 

spiritual." 

If you will permit a little autobiography, I will 
again refer to my own past. There are persons who, 
I think, know nothing of my personal investigations 
with respect to the existence, circumstances, and scenes, 
of mankind's future life. They have only heard. Those 
who do know, will, I trust, excuse me for speaking to 
those who do not know concerning my personal rela- 
tions to this subject. 

It is known and it can be demonstrated (the wit- 
nesses are nearly all living in this world,) that this 
subject of the future life came upon me years ago. I 
stand before you educated, to some extent, by that 
advent. It has made me acquainted with questions 
which are not common to merchants, and men who 
work, and think, and have their whole being parallel 
with society, and with the laws of ordinary business 
enterprises. The realities and scenes of the future 
came to me more silently and gradually than the flower 
unfolds from its earliest germinal beginnings. There 
was no shock in the advent. I was very much of a 
child in mind and body, and in years also, when the 
Spirit- World was first opened to my vision. So far as 
I myself was conscious, it came without any preparation, 
without any expectation, without any theory whatever, 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 53 

and without any imagination with reference to what 
man's future state was, and would be. And not only 
so, but I was for years shut out from any external 
memory or other acquaintance* with the wondrous facts 
that were delighting and intellectually enchanting the 
witnesses who were present when these things were 
delivered at 252 Spring street, New York, in the 
winter and spring of 1847. (See "Introduction to 
Nature's Divine Revelations/') 

Now, if I stood before you as an intellectual specu- 
lator, a theorist — as a person who hadpre-deterrnined to 
wrest historical facts, to twist them, to mold them, to 
fashion them by the legerdemain of an anti-conscientious 
intellect, and by the force of imagination shape my facts 
to suit a foregone conclusion — then indeed I should not 
be for one moment worthy your respectful attention. 
Because, in such case, I should be an imaginationist and 
a perjured witness, self-condemned, and I could not 
longer speak ; the words of my native tongue would 
cleave to the roof of my mouth, and I should be inter- 
nally forced to breathe in the midst of self-consterna- 
tions, and I know no power that could extricate me from 
the terrible embarrassment that would overwhelm my 
whole soul. 

But I do not stand before you in any such capacity. 
I am not a theorist; not an imaginationist; not a law- 
yer. My position is that of a person, who, without 
forethought or intellectual preparation, became slowly 
acquainted with realities and scenes that were trans- 
mitted, or "impressed/' day by day, from a higher 
sphere, until two whole years had transpired ; and 
tiicn, at the end of those two years, by a blessed mental 



54: SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

unfolding, which only the spiritual metaphysicians can 
truly explain to your understanding, the beautiful 
memories which had been thus gradually deposited 
within me came out and stood in the foreground, and 
said, " Rememberest thou these things V — instantly 
my external life, with its memories, was blended and 
married sweetly at the altar of the " superior condi- 
tion!' 5 So well do I remember it! In the city of 
beautiful Poughkeepsie, vividly, indeed* like a conscious 
flower, pulsated the clear facts of that new birth. And 
I stand before you as one who has continued these sub- 
lime investigations every forenoon, whenever my physical 
and external conditions were favorable for an entire 
cerebral abstraction — by which the physical world is shut 
out, and the spiritual senses opened — and then pictures 
and scenes of immortal beauty have been painted on the 
spirit's retina, such limpid realities as no pencil can 
possibly imitate on canvas, nor poetry transfer in lan- 
guage, to the mind of man. 

I appear before you, not as testifying in support 
of a theory, but to relate what I have seen as literal 
celestial verities. No theory can long exist which does 
not walk in the track of these indubitable facts. Nor 
can any philosophy long stand unless it comes to you 
just as these celestial facts came to me, in a logical 
sequence, following like flowing water along the un- 
changeable channels of Cause and Effect. Pardoning 
so much self-history, you will, I think, allow me now 
to ask your attention briefly to a philosophical basis for 
what I shall relate. 

In the year 1850 I began a chapter by asking the 
question : " Is human nature immortal ?" The same 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 55 

question is before me now. Who is the infidel among 
you ? Christians ! you who profess to believe so much 
better audi finer and truer things than I do, you who pass 
current in the outward world for being " orthodox" in 
your persuasion, I ask you : " Is immortality a part of 
your conviction ?" If it is not, then some other method, 
and some stouter proof, will be necessary to implant it 
in your judgment. But if it is, then I ask you : " Is 
immortality possible except on the supposition that you 
are to continue forever to be yourself?" Is human nature, 
the individuality, to be changed in the twinkling of an 
eye ? Can your personal nature be supernaturally 
changed and converted into something different ten 
minutes after death, or at the moment of the Resurrec- 
tion ? — can such a metempsychosis take place and you 
still continue to be yourself ? What kind of an immor- 
tality is that? For you. James and Mary, to be immor- 
tal, it is immutably necessary that you should continue 
to be James and Mary, and not others. When your 
neighbors, relatives, and intimate acquaintances arrive 
beyond the grave, they must be to you, and to them- 
selves, the continuation of the individual life-chapters 
here commenced to be written, otherwise they are utter 
strangers to each other — in all logical effects they 
would be new persons — and thus the doctrine of im- 
mortality would be nothing, although individuals might 
forever dwell in the higher realms. 

If immortality be a truth, then Christians cannot 
with reason say to me that I am uttering one word con- 
trary to the divine system of the celestial, spiritual, and 
physical universe. If they repudiate immortality, then 
[ am the Christian — that is, the believer. I do not w T ish 



56 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

to arrogate the former term ; for, as the so-styled 
Christian world now goes, I do not think the name is 
either much of a compliment or recommendation. The 
doctrine of immortality is in the world's religious faith. 
If it be accepted by the intellect, it must be on the 
principle that mankind continue the life begun in this 
world. How can a man be after death what he was on 
earth, unless he be distinguished by the same structure, 
unless the same general mental conformation continues, 
unless he remains possessed of the same general phy- 
sique, and the sam,e general arrangement of faculties and 
dispositions of temperament, which give him individu- 
ality and a marked personal position with reference to 
others in this world ? 

This reasoning I take as the first layer of basis, 
which may render the idea of immortality somewhat 
philosophical. 

Again I ask you who are openly avowed " Deists" — 
I mean those Unitarian Christians who believe in God — 
whether, if there be a God, who, as they say, is " with- 
out variableness or shadow of turning" — is He to be, 
or appear to be, an entirely different Person or Power 
in another state of being ? Can an omnipotent, un- 
changeable, deathless Deity, be something entirely dif- 
ferent when mankind ascend beyond the present, 
" nearer to God " ? You know that Deity, in the 
world's theologic conception, is a perfect, single man- 
large, vast, beyond all measurement, yet a man ! and 
that the emanation from his holy spirit goes out to fill, 
and thrill, and vivify the illimitable spaces of the 
universe. This last diffusion of the holy spirit is what 
some Christians call " th > Divine proceeding/'* the om- 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 57 

nipresence of the spirit of God, taking the name of the 
« Holy Ghost." 

Now I ask you whether, in your honest opinion, it 
be possible for an unchangeable God to change his na- 
ture and his balance? If he does not, it being intrin- 
sically impossible, then would it not be natural and 
reasonable to suppose that another existence adapted to 
mankind would be simply another section, or a higher 
degree, of the existence begun here ? Is it not logical 
to believe that what is primary here would correspond 
to something primary there — that what is here meant 
by "justice," and "truth," and "liberty," would there 
be represented by something exactly the same, perfectly 
identical ? If things begin here with roots and grow 
to summits, then, God not changing, and the vegetative 
laws and systems being the same, would you not sup- 
pose that all future growths occur in 'harmony with the 
inspiring principle ? Otherwise, with a different philo- 
sophy, you are all afloat ! You can have no common 
sense in matters of religion, unless you take the basis 
which is here given: it gives solid, fertile soil, and 
strong, firm roots, to all your ultimate reasonings and 
contemplations. 

You send your children to the primary schools. 
What for ? So that when they are old enough to take 
a higher position in the scale of learning they may be 
prepared to take all their rudiments of thought up into 
a more practical mental development. For this end 
the primary schools are established, and that is why 
you consent to send your children to them. Now, what 
is this earth? It is a primary school. It is primary 
in the physical as in the spiritual ; just as much in the 
3* 



58 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

social as in the intellectual. The universe changes not; 
because God is unchangeable ; therefore what you begin 
to learn here in the rudiment, you will be certain to 
ascertain there in the ultimate life ; what is germ here 
is flower there ; and so you can trace upward all the 
consecutive and unbroken links by which germs reach 
onward to fruition, and thus bloom out naturally on 
the summits of the great trees of Truth. Otherwise — 
that is, with a different notion — you have no philosophy 
and no science in your religion — only a dumb, shallow, 
idiotic heathenism, blundering and stumbling headfore- 
most into the absurdities of Supernaturalism. Mystery 
and fear are what the olden ministers consider the best 
stock-material in their stupendous trade. The high 
calling of every Reformer is to make Truth a simple 
Unity and a sublime Reality ! We have science and 
philosophy beneath our feet, truth in our principles, and 
reason in our propositions ; and nothing is true to our 
minds because any particular individual has "said it" 
— no authority to us in a " thus saith the Lord." 

I appear before you to testify to celestial facts that 
came to me without a theory or a philosophy, without 
foregone conclusions, without any logical points to 
make out, or any favorite positions to affirm and main- 
tain. If you can demonstrate my personal history in 
these particulars not to be real, publish it in your 
papers, and I will agree to pay you one hundred dol- 
lars for every line of such demonstration. The wit- 
nesses can nearly all be reached, and probably with the 
expense of from two to live dollars. These external 
remarks are for the lawyer and for the man who can't 
believe except he steps on solid ground. Therefore I 






SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 59 

say to such minds, try, and see for yourselves whether 
these things be not as I have told you from the first. 
Prove these declarations to be utterly unfounded, and 
you shall be forever thanked by the sectarians of 
Christendom. 

After ten years' acquaintance with the Summer- 
Land, I made the inquiry, on one occasion, why it was 
that so many names of places there had Latin roots and 
Greek terminations. I had learned, on frequent inte- 
rior occasions, to know what a Latin or Greek word 
meant, and how it was originated by scholars. By 
writing from the interior, I found that there is a kind 
of immortality in the Greek and Latin Languages — 
more than there is in the Hebrew, the Arabic, and some 
other tongues more oriental and ancient. There is a 
great root- vitality in some of what are called the " dead 
languages/' It seemed very curious to me that the 
Asiatic and Chaldaic languages were most represented 
in some of the spiritual brotherhoods ; also the lan- 
guage spoken first on the American continent by the 
earliest inhabitants, by the Aborigines, and those more 
singular people who preceded them — that there are 
communities in the Summer-Land which really do con- 
tinue to hold the words and memories of that language 
as precious. And hence it may be remarked that the 
Shakers, when under their peculiar inspirations — the 
celestial afflatus which pervades a congregation of wor- 
shiping Shakers — speak fluently in what are called "un- 
known tongues." (Of course on this point I need not 
stop to argue with and persuade Christians, because 
they have all read Paul, and know from such authority 
that such singular thing's used to be done— that all 



60 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

kinds of persons, in Pentecostal times, were uplifted 
and made to speak in ''unknown tongues.") And it 
seems that the spiritual language of the Shakers is cha- 
racteristic of the speeck of certain brotherhoods in the 
Summer-Land, composed of minds who yet retain their 
" first love" for the words which characterized their 
nationality — in which all their national history and re- 
ligious developments were written. They affectionately 
linger in it, and dwell in it, as bees in hives by the 
roadside. Why ? Because human nature is human 
still : death not radically changing either the heart or 
head. 

There is, as I have before said, a beautiful mount 
called " Starnos." A brotherhood of affiliated souls is 
seen upon the west of it, situated near a celestial pa- 
vilion called by the beautiful word, " Connilium." 
This wondrously beautiful pavilion is not to shelter 
persons from the tempests and storms, as we design and 
use buildings on earth. 

There is there no occasion to prepare for winter 
nor for great heat of summer. Different portions of 
the Summer-Land have different temperatures, but no 
such climate as we have in any part of the earth, be- 
cause that Land is made by the fine material contribu- 
tions and gravitation of atoms of all planets in the solar 
system. Hence it is the product of many, and not of 
one : the earth being but one atomic contributor to the 
material formation of that existence. Only portions of 
that Land, therefore, can retain the peculiarities of the 
earth, of which such portions are naturally more perfect 
representatives. 

This Consilium is a structure of exceeding beauty. 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER- LAND. 61 

It seems, to look at it, like a building made of trees, 
flowering shrubs, and countless vines. To the clair- 
voyant eye it is full of undescribable, beautiful colors. 
It seems to be composed of flowers that cast rays of 
lights and shadows like precious stones. And I won- 
der not that John, when standing on the Isle of Patmos 
and gazing into the upper sphere, seeing this marvelous 
Pavilion, called it " the New Jerusalem/ 5 Such gorge- 
ous beauty, resplendent with what seems to be precious 
stones, is not often painted upon the upturned eyes of 
the clairvoyant. 

Plowing along this side of that beautiful Pavilion is 
a river (I obtained the pronunciation of this word with 
great care) called " Apotravella." They sing to its 
tides. There is in that Brotherhood a piece of music 
written to the life of the Apotravella. And there are 
times when the vast multi-arched Connilium throbs like 
a harp, responsive to the historical musical revelation 
of that beautiful celestial stream. 

" Ali-Nineka" is the name of the Turk who is chief 
in that temple — still a follower and a believer in Ma- 
homet. One would suppose that by this time he had 
outgrown his creed, but he has not. He often sees and 
adores the gifted man who represented Mecca. The 
dwellers in this temple still believe that the populations 
of other portions of the Summer-Land will yet take 
great interest in Mahomet, the prophet of God. 

Thus, heathenism, (as men call it,) continues after 
death, and missionary workers, and even Spiritualistic 
meetings, will be necessary in the Upper-Land ; because 
human nature is not supernatural, but continues to be 
human — outgrowing it* errors either slowly or rapidly, 



62 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

in keeping with motives and temperaments. Some im- 
mediately improving and progressing in free truth ; 
others remaining unimpressible and conservative for 
very long ages. 

" Martillos" is the young, bright wife of Ali-Nineka. 
Martillos, who has lived centuries in that world, is 
"Morning Devotion," which is the significance of her 
name. She is filled with the spirit of the*master-mind 
from whom they get their musical education. The doc- 
trine of polygamy, which was so popular in Turkey and 
throughout all Mahommedan countries, is not practiced 
in this Brotherhood. This beautiful girl seems to have 
been the savior of Ali-Nineka. They constitute the 
central objects of talent and beauty, and are the host 
and hostess of that vast pavilion. 

In 1855, when I was writing something concerning 
that Christian sect which flourished in the second cen- 
tury, called the " Gnostics/' I realized a warmth and 
observed a little purple ray that was spread and trem- 
bling over the paper on which I was writing. It sig- 
nified that there was some person present in spirit who 
would testify ; and so, casting down my pen and yielding 
to that invitation, I received testimony from a man who 
called himself " Ephelitus." He said that he was a 
scholar and a propagandist in that early sect. He 
remarked that the race of Gnostics is almost extinct, 
but that there are a few of them remaining, who still 
believe that they had " the truth/' and they accordingly 
continue to advocate it. Ephelitus himself lived in a 
very different section of the Summer-Land. " Ori/ 5 he 
said, gives the sound of a word which signifies the 
name of his lovely valley — tlie Ephelitus region— where 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 63 

still a few Gnostics, like the Quakers of earth, meet to 
exchange civilities and to hold social conferences or 
religious conversations. 

Is it strange that persons who go across the ocean 
into Europe should meet and talk over American affairs ? 
Is it strange that when the old man walks down 
into the twilight of his personal history, he loves to sit 
and tell over to younger persons what happened to him 
three-score years before? Always keep in remembrance 
that human nature is human, both in this world and in 
the Summer-Land. 

In the valley of Ori, the oldest Gnostic, Ephelitus, 
holds his levees, and gathers about him those who wish 
to hear him tell of scenes and toils in Rome seventeen 
centuries ago. They listen to the "tales of a grand- 
father," and learn of the eventful century when Gnosti- 
cism first gathered its followers, when it grew, and 
became, for the time, a religious and local power. 

" Zellabingen" is a vast Gernjan Association, which 
was also seen in August, 1855. This Association in the 
Summer-Land was located, when I first observed the 
assemblage, parallel with the rings of Saturn with 
reference to the path of the sun. That is, if you were 
at that moment a member of the Zellabingen Associa- 
tion, and stood in its location, pointing northward at 
the time I mention, this way from the Summer-Land, 
you would have indicated a point in space directly 
parallel to the situation and plane of the rings of the 
planet Saturn. To have pointed earthward would have 
nearly reversed the direction of your vision. 

This vast Association is musical throughout. It is 
composed wholly of persons who had not, before death, 



64 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

acquired the power of song, but who yet possessed en- 
thusiastic and ardent love for music — souls whose desires 
for song had not been gratified in the earth. The Zel- 
labingen Association is to them the glorious actualiza- 
tion of what here was ideal and perpetual disappoint- 
ment. They each one said, " I have now no voice for 
song, but I will yet sing ; it is in me ; I can silently 
sing; my spirit sings; and time will bring me song." 
How many German maidens, and how many German 
young men, have become members of the Zellabingen 
Society! There they are, in the Upper-World, some 
of them centuries old, as our almanac would make it, 
yet younger than any grown person on earth. To them 
every morning is the beginning of a new day. By 
which I mean that every change in the cycle of their 
lives is to them the beginning of a new age through 
which they have never passed. They are fresh and 
new, spontaneous and beautiful. 

It was this Zellabingen Society that first adopted 
the beautiful movement called " The Children's Pro- 
gressive Lyceum." They began, as we have, by the 
distribution of twelve Groups. The Groups were de- 
signated and regulated according to the ages of their 
members ; that is to say, according to the ages of those 
who love music and song, and not according to ages 
kept by the almanac. For if you were measured and 
classified according to your spiritual age, you would, 
perhaps, be not more than two or three months in some 
things; others among you, though past life's meridian, 
are just born to a sight of spiritual things ; and some 
of you, although voters on election days, are not yet 
born in wisdom and true faith ; while others, years old 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER- LAND. 65 

in spiritual faith, are not a month old in matters per- 
taining to true knowledge. No — the soul is not to be 
measured by the almanac, but by its development from 
a state of darkness to a state of knowledge. In the 
Summer-Land there is no other account of time. A 
young man may, perhaps, know nothing of chemistry, 
but the same mind may be more than a century old in 
music. Youth is so perfect a principle in spirit that 
decay cannot come upon it. Every spirit, in the Upper 
life, becomes a spontaneous spring of ever-recurring 
youthfulness. 

The Zellabingen Society, I again observe, origin- 
ally adopted the Children's Lyceum Groups in the 
Summer-Land. The Groups first represented notes of 
music. Then each Group was an octave. At length 
the Groups multiplied and numbered up higher and 
higher, until they constituted an orchestra with a thou- 
sand octaves ! The master-spirits, standing among the 
musical Groups, so that every one could be reached, 
evoked such magnetic inspiration, that when a splendid 
piece of historical music rolled out from those accord- 
ant voices, the heavens seemed for the moment to be 
only music ! It seemed to me, when I first heard this 
celestial concert, that the people of Brooklyn, where I 
then resided, could not shut their ears against it. At 
the time I was in clairvoyance on the corner of Fulton 
and Franklin Avenues, in a room on the third floor, 
and it seemed that the busy inhabitants of New York, 
and all the cities round about, did certainly hear every 
note that was sounded. The lowest, the highest, and 
grandest notes were heard, and then the deep, deep bass, 
which seemed to come up from the profoundest starry 



66 SOCIETY JN TITO SUMMER-LAND. 

depths; so that it seemed as though the harp of old 
ocean was. attuned to perform a part of the melody. It 
seemed as though, had I had paper and pencil by me at 
the moment, 1 might have traced many parts of this 
wonderful historical music of the Zellabingen Society. 

But let us now speak of others. Lindenstein and 
Moraneski are Russian and Austrian Associations. The 
Lindenstein Association is more remote from the Zella- 
bingen Brotherhood than is England from America. It 
is situated very far away to the right. The Russian 
Association seemed to be immersed almost wholly in 
matters of history with reference to races of planets, 
no matter whether of this earth or others in space. 
They have lost a great deal of their attachment to their 
native globe. They are peculiarly truthful, unselfish, 
and disinterested. They are almost Teutonic in their 
studious methods. They often associate themselves in 
large assemblies. And when I first saw them, on a 
p&rticular occasion, it seemed to be their time of meet- 
ing. They were interested in, and debating upon, 
historical questions. The uses and lessons of such 
celestial conventions and deliberations will be seen at 
some future time. 

"Moraneski," the Austrian Assembly, or Society, 
is a very different Brotherhood. They were, at that 
time, concerning themselves almost entirely with the 
formation of the best governments for the different 
tribes and peoples of the earth. They are politicians 
in their methods, but do not seek to exert political 
influence over kings and emperors. 

Monazolappa is the only exclusively African realm 
that I have ever seen in the Spirit- World. And here, 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 67 

for the first time, I saw that progeny of parents, of 
whatever race, not born perfectly organized in the 
formation of the inner brain, do not obtain an indi- 
vidualized representation after death. It seems that 
there was a very large percentage of the progeny of 
the early inhabitants who never attained to immortality. 
According to the testimony of jthe Monazolappa Asso- 
ciation, myriads of the progeny of the semi-humans, who 
prevailed in the early ages of the globe, went down out 
of sight into the vortices and laboratories of matter. 
There was there no voice of lamentation. They said 
that their true children were not lost ; for every human 
child naturally born is there; only those, who, taking 
on the shape of man, but not yet internally organ- 
ized up to the human, were excluded from the upper 
spheres. 

Two years previous, in 1853, I was led (by a very 
beautiful incident which I may not now relate,) to see for 
the first time a Brotherhood on the north of what I 
first called Mount Starnos — a beautiful Spanish Asso- 
ciation, more numerous than the population of America, 
called "Aeadelaco," or " Eco del Eco" — the name as 
near as I can remember to pronounce. And there was 
round about that beautiful Starnos a lake that seemed 
to be of pure limpid amber ! It was flowing, yet not 
heavily liquid as is our earthly water. It seemed to be 
more like flowing liquid atmosphere than like water, 
and it had the peculiar property of giving off a refresh- 
ing fragrance instead of a suffocating fog. And once. 
soon after this vision, in crossing the East River to 
New York on the Brooklyn ferry-boat, I saw a painful 
contrast; for there we wandered, and floated, and 



68 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

steamed about for three-quarters of an hour, in a/og 
that had. a remarkably bad smell. And I had just 
arisen from the studio in which that entire spiritual 
truth had been developed, with the recollection of the 
emanations from the amber-like river to the north of 
Staraos ! What a contrast between the two worlds ! 
Hovering over the bosom of the heavenly river was a 
fragrance from countless flowers. 

A gentleman who is an expert in science says that 
he can demonstrate that the photographic instrument 
can photograph invisible substances. Thus mankind 
are getting ready to take the spirit form, to establish the 
beautiful fact, by photographic developments. Art has 
made the nearest approach to painting unsubstantial 
shadows, so that the human eye can, with admiring 
satisfaction, look upon them. Perhaps, in this manner, 
one of these days, Art will catch the fragrance of a 
flower, so that you can take the likeness of an odor to 
your friends ! Men will then say, " Is it possible that 
for centuries and centuries immemorial we have been 
only able to smell without seeing, while now we can see 
what we have known only by the olfactory nerves V 9 
Now, I will again say that the odoriferous emanations 
from that beautiful amber-river were visible, and that 
they constituted, above the stream, what Fourier, in 
speaking of the ultimate of this planet, called a " Boreal 
Crown." It aromally rose up and swept over for 
thousands of miles both east and west. What a mag- 
nificent rainbow was that, with colors to which no hu- 
man eye is accustomed ! Here there were, in colors, 
new developments, rich, splendid ! And do you suppose 
that a Brother of the Acadelaco Society could look 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 69 

upon that scene and not worship the Infinite Mind? 
Every human mind would in one moment be moved to 
feelings of purest devotion and highest adoration. The 
rainbow here is a philosophical fact, unless the system 
of Nature be a fraud; and the spiritual counterpart is a 
continuation of this on a grander principle. The fact 
exists in science, and you cannot dodge the conclusion, 
that, in other spheres, similar phenomena may occur. 

M Miantovesta" is an Italian Brotherhood, in a very 
different section of the Summer-Land. This Brother- 
hood is distinguished by some' of the most beautiful 
women that ever lived on the face of the earth. It is 
one of the most celestial and attractive. And behold 
what hospitalities the Miantovestaians receive when 
they visit the Zellabingens! They journey to the latter 
Brotherhood from time to time; and there the sweet 
singers of the Miantovesta join the anthems of the 
Groups, and their voices rise up and blend like drops 
of dew in the air. 

I wonder not — having heard the music of this great 
Association — that many Christians conceive the king- 
dom of heaven to be a perpetual singing-school — a pro- 
tracted Methodist meeting — continuing years and centu- 
ries, while they adore God, with hymns of praise, grati- 
tude, and thanksgiving, in this manner occupying their 
time throughout the infinite periods ! And this is the 
orthodox Christian's conception of heaven! Human 
nature must be entirely changed at death to make it 

ible to realize such a conception. Nay, nay. It is 
a philosophic, scientific, phrenological, affectional, logi- 
cal, spiritual, religious absurdity. Yet, remembering 
the effect produced when the Zellabingen Socioty joins 



70 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

its wondrous, magnificent melody with the Mianto- 
vesta — then I sometimes think that, from this celestial 
fact, the early Christians may have obtained their con- 
ception that the eternity in the kingdom of heaven is 
devoted to the cheerful works of music and praying. 

" Pialoleski" is another Russian Association. It is 
peculiar, and distinguished for its musical properties. 
Having heard the songs of these musical gatherings, I 
feel the impulse to urge our Brothers and Sisters to 
open their mouths and bring forth the joyful hymns of 
progress and praise. No wonder that I would have 
song poured from everybody's mouth! It has almost 
lifted me up to the thought of having nothing cultivated 
in this world save music. When I first heard the Anvil 
Chorus, it seemed after all as though the multifarious 
sounds of noisy cities would one of these days be " set 
to music." I had no appreciation of such a combina- 
tion of sounds and parts as constituted an "opera" 
until these celestial sounds came through the clairaudi- 
ence of my own spirit, thus educating the mind to 
breathe in the significance of music, as well as to com- 
prehend somewhat of its physical vesture. 

Senelocius and Helvetius are celebrated even in the 
Summer-Land for their logical peculiarities and intel- 
lectual endowments. Baron D'Holbach, too, and those 
who believe in his doctrines, seem to think the time will 
come when men's minds will wholly outgrow any idea 
of God — that there is no necessity and no philosophy 
for such an impossible Being. They believe and teach 
many about them that God is a supernatural absurdity; 
that there is no supernaturalism. They sometimes think 
the absurdity itself is absurd, and they advocate among 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 71 

themselves, and fearlessly in the presence of those about 
them, the same fundamental thoughts that ruled the 
affections of the earthly society which they formed 
before they left the earth. 

Professor Webster, of the Dr. Parkman history, 
went among such minds, not by invitation, but in asso- 
ciation with others who were going to see and to listen. 
And when he first appeared to a circle in Springfield, 
Mass., he there reported a peculiar doctrine which the 
medium was afraid to write or have reported. It was 
really the doctrine of the Helvetian School, much modi- 
fied, but essentially the same. 

Swedenborg truly says that, in the Spirit- World, 
the different associations, nationalities, tribes, and reli- 
gious sects continue. The philosophers of the Atheistic- 
al school — especially Senelocius — make these notions 
a matter of society, so that the children of parents who 
think as they do, and the wives of those men who so 
think, and persons in other Brotherhoods, have large 
sentimental gatherings, where they enjoy festivities and 
conversation. Human nature here is human nature 
there. We have here a New England Society, the 
Western Association, or the Knickerbocker Associa- 
tion, &c, and the different Clubs. It is the same thing 
there, only on a grander and more harmonious scale. 

" Archilarium" is the name of an open pavilion 
where these teachers gather the multitudes who want 
to listen. When this assemblage was witnessed by me 
in 1858, it seemed like avast convention : not, however, 
characterized by the turbulency of earthly gatherings. 
They all seemed to take a great deal of interest in 
everything said and done. It was a celestial Conven- 



72 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

tion held out in the open fields of heaven — beautiful, 
fair, mossy, and bedecked with every variety of flower- 
ing plants. 

" Vivodario" is the name of that Oratorio — of that 
beautiful section of river — to which I referred in the 
early part of this discourse. And the beautiful Octo- 
lonia is the angel-writer and poetess — a gifted lady in 
the Summer-Land — who developed and arranged the 
sublimest piece of music in the whole Brotherhood of 
Zellabingen. It was written long after death by this 
beautiful German lady-spirit. Octolonia is the name 
given to her in consequence of her great attainments 
and accomplishments. Her name is her coronation; it 
shines from her brow ; it sparkles and shimmers through 
her beautiful locks. She seems to be radiant with the 
music of which she was the authoress. 

" Ulcemira" is the name of a traveler who had ar- 
rived just at the time when this clairvoyant observation 
was made. Ulcemira, too, is a most beautiful woman, 
who, in this world, had desires for journeying which 
had never had any gratification. But when she felt her 
feet free upon the green fields of Paradise, she openly 
declared and made an oath that " she would have her 
soul gratified with excursions." And verily, this beau- 
tiful woman, Ulcemira, has traveled twenty times 
farther than from here to the sun. She had just arrived 
from one excursion, and, with the poetess, stood where 
the music was just about beginning : and that was the 
glorious scene, and the time, when I heard the grandest 
music possible to imagine. 

The social scenes in the Summer-Land, which I was 
enabled to see two days after what is above mentioned, 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 73 

and which included the enchanting festivities, were be- 
yond all verbal description. I will not detain you by a 
single word upon them ; they may come up, perhaps, in 
a future reference. 

11 La Samosata" is the name of a Convent, or what 
would here be called a Monastery. There are persons 
who still verily believe that the Roman Catholic faith 
is God's exclusive religion. Such spirits hover over 
their congenial earthly congregations. Therefore the 
Roman Catholics do experience real inspirations — not 
revelations, remember, because revelations open and en- 
lighten the judgment, whilst inspirations excite, vivify, 
and warm our spirits to action. Many persons are 
truly inspired who have not common sense. In fact, 
they may be very highly inspired, and still be very un- 
wise in their externals. On the other hand, when a man 
has a real revelation — which gently expands and opens 
the faculties of thought, and which also brings propor- 
tion, and depth, and solidity — then inspiration becomes 
to that man's faculties what sun-heat is to the flowers, 
and grains, and grasses. It is a cause of growth and 
of steady fertilization. 

Now these Catholics of our earth really feel the 
hovering indorsement and benedictions of the La Samo- 
sata — the tenants of a vast Convent. It is a place shut 
in by mountains that fill the distance away off, like 
Alps upon Alps (only not with those abrupt and pointed 
summits,) but like innumerable oceans they seem to roll 
down to the garden of the Convent. 

If the earthly astronomer could but gaze upon this 
scene with his telescope, it would seem to him as though 
he was contemplating new star-fields in the heavens, in 
4 



74 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

beauty and magnitude far beyond his ability to transmit 
in language, or to map down for the longing eyes of his 
waiting fellow-men. The La Samosata, instead of being 
a place where a few thousand can gather, may con- 
tain all the Roman Catholics who have gone into 
the Spirit- World for many past centuries, and hence it 
is vastly larger than the States of both Illinois and 
Wisconsin. You ask, " Do they all live there V* I 
answer by asking, "Do you suppose that there is coer- 
cion ? Is the internal government of the Spirit-Land 
more arbitrary, more despotic than this? Will you not 
there be more, instead of less, generous and kind to all 
forms of faith ? Will the good Father and Mother 
send policemen or .missionaries armed with rods and 
whips to drive men who do not believe the exact let- 
ter V\ No, no. Human nature continues the same. 
Therefore Roman Catholic Associations in the next 
sphere are just as inevitable and natural as anywhere 
on the face of the earth. 

I will speak of other things. A great white flower 
was seen in the same month. It is called the " Archi- 
bulum" — a beautiful word, meaning the white temple of 
the children. And there, near the garden containing 
these flowers, are persons we read of in the Bible. 
There I observed those who would not be comforted — 
Rachel, and also very many beautiful Jewesses, and the 
Israelitish women who were called heroines in the old 
Hebrew Scriptures. The Archibulum is a vast white 
flower, so constituted as to represent the image of beau- 
tiful children grouped directly at its center. It seems to 
grow full one hundred feet from the earth. Many admir- 
ing spirits seem to think they see in the flower's center a 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 75 

beautiful representation of the son of Mary and Joseph, 
when he said, " Suffer little children to come unto me/' 
It is the divinest flower of all that section of the Sum- 
mer-Land. And the early Hebrew women look with 
great delight upon the Archibulum, with the picture 
of an assembly of children at its center — one of the 
most marvelous floral developments in the garden of 
God. 

Do not forget, friends, that I am speaking to you of 
scenes in the Summer-Land — the next-door neighbor to 
all this circle of planets, of which the earth is a member. 
What would you say if you should hear somewhat con- 
cerning the third Sphere, of the one beyond that, or of 
another and still higher ? I have seen mediums who 
think they receive communications from the innumera- 
ble upper places ! No. Many of them have not heard 
from the gifted in these Brotherhoods. Now and then 
some one of them says, " Oh, that is nothing, the next 
spirit- world is nothing! i* get communications from 
the seventh heaven — away up out of sight I" That is 
all ecstatic inspiration, without any analyzing judg- 
ment — no revelation to balance the mind in truth. Men 
and women get more humility when they get more wis- 
dom. Pomposity of intellect is the best proof of its 
shallowness. When a truly sublime idea comes to you, 
then, " expressive silence" is alone natural and worthy. 
Words are an impertinence. 

" Aurealia" is the general name for a class of pulsat- 
ing lilies. These golden and graceful plants grow by the 
peaceful homes of those pure souls who wish them. Au- 
realia represents u new hopes," or freshened hopes. It 
grows by the heavenly homes of many good, high-born 



76 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

souls, in the spirit-world. Some persons who have lived 
in New York, and some who have departed from among 
our households, have been seen where these beautiful 
pulsating indications of "freshened hopes" vibrate in 
the soft, beautiful zephyrs of the immortal sphere. 

« Oahulah" is the name of a brotherhood of Sand- 
wich Islanders, which I saw almost by an accident, 
when I was looking for something very different. The 
circumstance may interest you. 1 took up a newspaper 
and saw the name of Aaron Burr. I had never read 
anything concerning him. I had heard that he was a 
peculiar man, a politician, &c. I had also heard some 
conversation about him. I said, "I wonder if I cannot 
get some information with reference to him." This was 
early in the iirst year of the Herald of Progress — 
about three years ago. The question occupied my 
thoughts for three different mornings, and, on the third 
session, clairvoyance was complete, and the vision 
opened, but I did not see Aaron Burr as I expected to, 
but I saw a much smaller man, with a brow that was 
not yet clear of a singular shadow, which immediately 
drew my attention, and I said, " I wish I could know 
what it is that so shades that man's brow" I saw nothing 
above him that could cast a shadow, nor had he any- 
thing upon his head. He was surrounded and conversing 
with a great many others. They were seemingly inter- 
ested in something pertaining to the war then approach- 
ing on earth, and with reference to some persons who 
were their earthly relatives, whom they knew would 
soon be among them from the battle-fields. But above 
all, this man's shaded brow drew my clairvoyant atten- 
tion. I wished to know who he was, and to learn what 



SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 77 

the shadow meant. At length I saw that he was Alex- 
ander Hamilton. In his company I saw none of the early 
American statesmen ; but there were many intelligent 
persons with him, and of different races. Soon Mr. 
Hamilton unvailed his memory and began to think, 
and I could see the thoughts roll out at the front part 
of his mind, and each was as clear to my inward vision 
as is any object to the physical eye. 

I saw in his memory a place that I had seen on 
earth. At first I could not recognize it sufficiently to 
locate it. But presently it grew more familiar. I had 
seen the trees, and the walks, and the grass, and the 
mountain, and the Hudson River! I looked again, and 
thought for a while, and then I remembered that it was 
Hoboken! In a few minutes some eight men appeared, 
and he among the rest. And now I saw in his thought 
a regret that he had been weak enough, low enough in 
the moral scale, so actuated by pride and a false code 
of honor, as ever to have permitted Aaron Burr to send 
him, "before his time/' into the Summer-Land. And 
I could see distinctly the figures 1804 — the year in 
which Burr shot him: twenty-four hours alterward he 
passed, a duelist, to the After-Life. For days he was 
in a deep, dreamy slumber. When he awoke, he found 
upon his brow this shadow ! The cause of his regret 
dates back half a century; still there is a shadow just 
over his brow and upon his head. 

The lesson is impressive and easily learned. It is best 
for all to be right and to do right. No man or woman 
is wholly innocent; no one perfect. If you are not 
good and strong enough to save and prevent another 
from doing you a wrong, the weakness goes with you, 



78 SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER-LAND. 

and its effects will shade you somewhere, either in person 
or in spirit, and you cannot conceal a weakness so per- 
fectly as you can in this world. 

The Oahulah is the association of Sandwich Island- 
ers where Alexander Hamilton was temporarily 
sojourning, which I saw by an accident, so to say, when 
trying to find Aaron Burr. Oahulah was constituted 
of persons who had passed on from those earth-islands 
into the spirit-world. 

" Wallavesta" and " Passaeta" both are realms of 
various peaceful and affiliated tribes of Indians. The 
hatchet is really buried, and the pipe of peace is 
smoked. At last the red man has found his hunting- 
grounds. The sachems and the wigwams, the great 
forests and the regions of beauty to traverse, and the 
shining lakes for bathing and fishing — these ideal dreams 
of the old Indians are more than actualized in the 
Summer-Land. The immortal Indian, 

" whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds and hears him- in the wind/' 

is just as good a Christian as they who sat at the feet 
of Jesus, because the Eternal breathed infallible in- 
stinctive truths into his unfettered mind. In the depths 
of intuition he obtained foreglimpses of the beautiful 
immortal realm, not like these barren wastes and rude 
territories granted by government, but a land given by 
the Great Spirit to the "red man," who is as much a 
child of God as is any member of the Zellabingen, as 
much as the highest archangel who dwells in yet higher 
spheres in the spiritual universe. 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

On the twenty-first day of August, 1859, while 
making clairvoyant examinations and writing upon the 
Second Part of this volume, in the Fraternal mansion 
of C. O. Pool, Esq., at Buffalo, New York, I realized 
a gush of thoughts, surcharged with inexpressible long- 
ings, regarding the pure nature and visitation of James 
Victor Wilson. The wave soon subsided, however, 
and I was, as before, only Occupied with the subject of 
my writing. The next day the same beautiful thoughts 
of him, and the same fraternal yearnings for his per- 
sonal presence, pervaded my whole mind. But these 
meditations and longings, as before, passed gently and 
utterly away. This experience was repeated from day 
to day until the twenty-fifth, the early morn of which 
dawned with the person of my Brother hovering in its 
wings. He came with his accustomed gentleness, stood 
close by the open w T indow at which I was writing, and 
we conversed as naturally as any two spirits ever did. 
Of this I need not speak, having, as I think, amply ex- 
plained the method thereof in several preceding works. 

But regarding the personal appearance of this un- 
earthed Brother, who lias resided some ten years in the 
spirit-hind, I may remark briefly. His form is more 
round than when last I beheld him, and his motions 
and gestures are characterized with more uprightness 



80 A VOICE FKOM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

and dignity. His bodily presence ennobled me at once, 
and I felt like one standing in the midst of royalty. 
Plis habiliments were artificial, evidently the work of 
more delicate hands than those of the finest terrestrial 
maiden, and he wore them as though he lived in a Land 
of summer warmth and glory. The outlines of his finG 
form were visible through his garments. 

Of the following imperfect report of his conversation 
a few explanatory words are necessary. After luxu- 
riating some twenty minutes or more in social com- 
merce, during which lie introduced the object of his 
visit, I then took time to write clown all my memory of 
his communication. While engaged thus, my Friend 
would depart from the window. Whither I knew not. 
But he invariably returned in time to correct any mis- 
take in conception or spelling, and to proceed with the 
narration. In every instance where strange words were 
used, to designate places, persons, or things, my habit 
Was, as it always is, to request the repetition of them, 
in order to make certain of the pronunciation and ortho- 
graphy. Many words of this class occur in the follow- 
ing report. And here let the reader bear in mind, that 
these new words are written just as Brother Wilson pro- 
nounced them repeatedly in my hearing. Each syllable 
is to be spoken as written, which will then yield the 
correct pronunciation ; and the sound of each word, as 
heard from the tongue of the gentle Spirit, conveys the 
sweetest music and the highest impression. Regarding 
the contents of this communication, I have nothing to 
say by way of explanation ; but cheerfully commit 
them to the reader's reason as a Voice fkom the Spirit- 
Land. 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 81 

" Throughout my last discourse there flowed a tur- 
bulent river.* My joy was unutterable, my delight 
ineffable, my perception of truth ecstatic. Much have 
I wondered what my friends would think of that im- 
perfect* report. Long have I wished to make a closer 
and a nicer revelation of the angel's home. The spirit- 
land is indeed a country of undying charms and posi- 
tive attractions. Among the millions of conceptions 
which within ten years I have unlearned, there remains 
one which is more sublime and growingly-permanent 
than any truth I at first discerned, and that I gave you : 
the Universe is a musical instrument, on which the 
Divinity is perpetually expressing the infinitely-diversi- 
fied harmonies of his nature, which is immeasurably 
deep and altogether unchangeable." 

u Are you less joyous ?" I inquired. " Have you less 
delight and less truth than when you last visited me ¥' 

" All things are new," he replied. " I am less ecsta- 
tic now, because I am more happy. My joy is calmer 
because profounder. Tn the early months of my exist- 
ence here, I was as a child over-excited with the worlds 
of immeasurable magnitude which rolled musically in 
every quarter of the firmament. I was wild with the 
ocean of attractions that throbbed round about my im- 
mortal self. iSTo youth ever felt one-half of my enthu- 
siasm. Every excursion-troupe sent me an invitation. 
I visited world upon world ; walked upon planets 
twenty times larger and greatly more populous than 
Earth ; meditated as I thought, studied assiduously as 
I believed, tested facts by analysis as I fancied, and 
made nice philosophic measurements of much con- 

* See his communication in " Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse." 
4* 



82 A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAKD. 

secrated truth : yet I have inhaled, as I now know, but 
the fragrance of a few of those flowers which grow on 
the margin of the infinite ocean !" 

" If the task be not unpleasant, my angel-brother," 
said I ; rt if this self-criticism be not ungracious and un- 
worthy of your wisdom, will you contribute to earthly 
minds the occupations and studies of your past few 
years ?" 

A heavenly light beamed from his white brow, and a 
rich flood of love poured out of his large, earnest blue 
eyes, when he opened his rosy lips to reply : " As the 
sun unrolls the flower, so have I had my being unrolled 
by the spontaneous working of eternal principles. But 
while travelling and flitting, so to speak, from star to 
star, dividing my thoughts by a countless variety of 
new sights, I made no happy progress in heavenly 
knowledge. Socially, intuitionally, and perceptively, I 
had obtained and absorbed much ; but when at length 
I wanted more than this, my reflective reason informed 
me that I was ignorant. Hundreds, yea thousands, 
have lived here thousands of years without visiting the 
surrounding worlds of space. Such are consecrated to 
the Father's service in healthful ways that are pleasant. 
Among these are Prodicus the eloquent Greek, Euripi- 
des the tragic poet, Socrates the ethical teacher, Her- 
mogenes, Plato, Xenophon, Moschus, Anaxagoras, 
Crito, and unnumbered other old men on earth of vast 
superiority of mind, who, though brilliant with youth- 
fulness now, and illustrious with a torrent of holy acts 
throbbing through their harmonious hearts, are fixed in 
their self-made orbits here, like the immutable stars of 
destiny in your stellar scenery." 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT- LAUD. 83 

" Do not these persons travel in the spirit-land ?*' I 
isked, with unrestrained surprise. 

My angel-brother smiled with an awakened fervor 
spreading over his face, and replied : " They bring the 
whole universe down to their feet, and comprehend in 
truth every world and' all the planets I have visited 
with infinitely more potent thought and spiritual accu- 
racy than I can understand even now." 

" You make a curious statement," said I. " Perhaps 
you can explain it so that I may get the image of your 
thought." 

" Happy word !" he exclaimed. "Images and like- 
nesses are but forms of ideas within the great minds of 
this existence. The realm of objects and forms is the 
educt of the world of ideas. The sensational sphere 
they regard as the sphere of effects ; the causes being 
inherent to mind, or Vaseiel, which is what you term 
spirit. On\j he travels who knows not the contents of 
his own spirit. That every sun and fixed star, every 
world or heaven of worlds, that latitudes and distances, 
objects, forms, time, are contained in man, passeth as 
yet my highest understanding. Yet there is a symmetri- 
cal dawning of this truth over the horizon of my faith- 
ful reason. I never doubt it, whenever inspired by the 
discourse of those chief stars of immeasurable self-pos- 
session, whose intellectual powers sweep the unmapped 
empires of immensity." 

11 Friend Victor," I interposed, " can you explain 
how it was that your great thirst for journeying was 
satisfied ?" 

rt That thirst is not quenched," he replied ; " another 
attraction prevails with me now, and has governed my 



84: A VOICE FROM TH3 SPIRIT LAND. 

thoughts for several years: I mean the study of 
Antiquity." 

"Of Antiquity!" I exclaimed. "It seems to me 
that you are the last mind to be so employed." 

" Let me relate an incident," he replied. " I was 
admiring the geometrical figures made upon the smooth 
soil by the shadows of a certain flower, when a member 
of the Plana de Alphos (a holy brotherhood) approached 
me, and asked : ' Which influence exalts you most, the 
sounds of the Porilleum (a musical spring), or the 
incense of the Voralia (a beautiful and fragrant rose), 
that blooms on the slopes of the Pantrello V* No 
answer came to his simple question. He had many 
times witnessed the outbreaks of my boyish enthusiasm. 
A serene beauty and a brotherly compassion character- 
ized his face and speech, for he had let me into the 
depth of my own ignorance regarding the most familiar 
objects in the spirit-land. My mind mounted to a 
higher level of emotion and labor, and tenderly did I 
pray in silence to know which of the two influences was 
most exalting to my feelings. Although I had much 
intuitive knowledge of the spiritual laws, had contem- 
plated from the purple mountains of the Omniscient 
Spirit, had walked reverently beneath the stooping sky 
of many worlds in space, had studied as I thought the 
sculpture of Omnipotence in all the towers of the stellar 
universe, yet there I stood confounded, by the noble 
Greek's simple question ! — yea, rebuked a thousand 
times every moment by the unfolded voralia at my feet, 

* This name is given to a group of graceful hills in the distance. 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT- LAND. 85 

and equally by the divine melody of the ever-flowing 
porilleum. 

"'Can you not reply?' asked the Greek, who was 
even more gentle and compassionate than before. 

u I replied in candor that I could not, and added: 
'Allow me the informing advantages of your Brother- 
hood ; attach me to your tender-spirited wisdom for a 
season, and I will promise to find the knowledge of God 
as he originally hid it in the least of things.' The 
good man extended his hand as a token of agreement. 
The tidal forces of his love beat through my heart. 
Like the tenth billow of a majestic-flowing sea was the 
uplifting influence of his wisdom beneath me. In 
silence I accompanied him to the Brotherhood of the 
Plana de Alphos." 

Here I asked my friend Wilson if he would give me 
a description of that celestial Association. 

He replied : " You remember the arcanum which I 
before disclosed, that those spirits which emanate from 
the earth, or from any other planet in the universe, are 
introduced into that society for which they entertain 
the most congenial sympathies and affections? This, 
like every other society or brotherhood, is thus organ- 
ized. It is situated on one of an unnumbered host of 
islands, which mark and diversify the geography of the 
Spirit-Land. The name of this beautiful isle is Akro- 
panamede, meaning i All-Sided Perfection.' It is of 
immense proportions, but slopes on every side, wave- 
like, to the water's edge, where the endless rows of 
flowering Gandulea (or fragrant trees) add their sym- 
metrical glory to the scene. These gandulea grow in 
the glorious gardens. They cover with their shade a 



86 A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

musical porilleum here and there, and blend their per- 
fume with the odor of the immortal voralia blooming 
in the courts ; or with the incense which stealthily floats 
down from the dreamy pantrello ; where millions of 
those fairy flowers perpetually breathe their holy 
prayers. 

"The Isle of Akropanamede is shaped something like 
an earthly pear. It is more beautiful and heavenly 
than any terrestrial landscape can ever be. A brilliant 
river of vivid charms, called Appilobeda, flow T s like 
God's grace and love around the head of the isle. The 
smaller river, Atodyle, glides down from the opposite 
direction, against the narrow point of the Isle ; whither 
it separates into two equal streams, and flows thence 
musically into the embrace of the ever-glorious Appilo- 
beda. Birds of the most celestial song, and with plu- 
mage of the simplest beauty conceivable, till the fragrant 
air. with a mournful melody. The saddest singing-bird 
is called Quarreau, a native of the planet Mars, but 
brought here by the inhabitants of this Isle, who fre- 
quently visit the living population there, even as spirits 
now begin to hold commerce with the earth's inhabi- 
tants. Ineffably sweeter to me is the varied and rich 
notes, yet ever-sad songs, of the Baskatella / a forest- 
bird of the ivy-mantled trees of golden Saturn. These 
feathery songsters live and multiply here as they did 
upon their native orbs. 

"The Brotherhood of Plana de Alphos are serenely 
active in the greatest wonders of benevolence and art. 
There is upon this beautiful Isle the grandest temple of 
treasured antiquities. The Brothers call it the Agga- 
mede ; meaning £ the Cabinet of Antiquity.' Nothing 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 87 

upon earth can similitude this wondrous combination of 
ancient architecture. There is, apparently, something 
of every absolute form of edifice in its mighty propor- 
tions. In extent, finish, and richness, it is overwhelm- 
ing; it seems that ten years of ceaseless walking would 
not pass me through all its parts. My noble guide and 
beloved teacher, whom the fraternity name Apozea, in 
answer to my first question concerning the dimensions 
of the Aggamede, said : ' Compose a circle of twenty-one 
sevens. This will reveal the number of wings to the 
temple ; also, the number of mansions contained in each 
wing. Multiply each seven by the whole number, and 
the total of the added amounts reveals the number of 
both the inter-linking avenues, and the surmounting 
domes. Place this number in the centre of the circle of 
sevens, multiply the central figures by each seven com- 
posing the band, and the total amount shows the number 
of square furlongs of spirit-land covered by the Agga- 
mede. Multiply the last amount by the central figures, 
and the product will reveal the number of square 
English miles of the Isle of Akropanamede. Difide 
this number by seven, and the amount obtained is the 
number of Brothers who compose the Fraternity of 
Plana de Alphos.' Seeing many beautiful women — 
younger and older — walking in the temple and gardens, 
I asked my Apozea for information regarding their con- 
nection with the Brotherhood. He gently instructed 
me at some length concerning the balance and equal 
happiness of the sexes in the benevolent arts and labors 
of the temple. Many of the women, and as many 
men, were there under the Divine vasciel (or influence) 



88 A VOICE FROM' THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

of the fraternity. Such are called OjpeatJialeta, meaning 
the patients and students within the temple. 

" My Apozea's lifted intellect seemed to shed sunlight, 
mingled with mystery, upon everything he alluded to 
or touched. Field, form, flower, bird, spring, tree, 
temple, even my fellow-beings, were both brilliant with 
uses and blurred with a sad-like shadow of undefinable 
mystery. He comprehended my condition, as I stood 
without the wing of the temple, and said cheeringly : 
' Advance, my baskatella (bird), for thou art our 
beloved Oj)eathalos (student), and the time future is 
thine to become whatso thou wilt ; for thou art even 
now fit to stir within others the power of thought, and 
to meditate with the happy Paralorella* The distant 
pantrello will invite and teach thee to comprehend thy 
God, hid within the fragrant voralia and the musical 
pori Ileum. 

u ' Who are these patients V I asked. And my Apozea 
answered : ' Seek to know them, and thou shalt under- 
stand ; feel to do them divine service, and they will tell 
thee all their secrets. The day is long, and the field is 
vast down to the waves of the Appilobeda. Within 
the temple is the fountain of Andomont / beneath the 
Isle is the source of the sweet-flowing Atodyle ; within 
thee is the all-wise, ever-loving Arabula, (meaning a 
divine guest); therefore, my baskatella, thou art with 
us at home, and thy feet will press the path that is 
pleasant; see to it, I tell thee, that thou becomest 
worthy to know all things heavenly and eternal.' 

" So saying, he turned from me, and disappeared 

* The name given to half-cured patients. 



A VOICE FJROM THE SPI1UT-LAXD. 89 

beneath the flowering gandulea, the beauty and fra- 
grance of whose foliage surpass ail tints and odors upon 
earth. 

"My Apozea is a teacher of exceeding grace and 
power. There is an immaculate clearness in his beauti- 
ful eye; his loveful voice is both deep and round with 
power; impressive eloquence and modesty characterize 
his face and speech ; his form is rounded and is as per- 
fect as imagination can picture harmony of proportion ; 
and when he walks, the celestial colors sprinkle his 
wavy hair with golden light, while his soft beard glit- 
ters with the highest ray of beauty. Demetrius, Tasso, 
Camoens, Theodorus, could not together form a person 
more physically beautiful. O my brother, the Greek is 
great and beautiful ! His disposition is gentle as a 
mother's love, yet there is the flow and fire of thought 
in his discourse; an effectiveness of imagery and lofti- 
ness of style which thrills every opeathelos who attaches 
himself to the class. The separate stages of individual 
experience, with their causes and significance, are the 
textual pivots of his powerful discourses. He is a met- 
aphysician, yet feels with the opeathaleta who hear 
him. Hundreds love him, although they know not the 
import of his speeches. The multitude catch his geni- 
ality and power, but not his thought. 

" The wondrous Aggamede now attracted me. I 
walked very near to the formation, put my hand npon 
its smooth sides, and began like an architect to examine 
the material and construction. The building substance 
used is called Aureola, but where obtained and how 
formed into a transparent w T all eighty times finer than 
the finest earthly glass, I as y^et know not. It is 



90 A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

wondrously strong, and can photograph itself upon any 
suitable substance in three hundred and twenty-four of 
your seconds." Here friend Wilson unrolled a light, 
gauzy substance, and showed me a curious painting of 
the temple, taken from where he stood when first he 
saw it. In grandeur, magnitude, and newness of struc- 
ture, it exceeds everything I ever imagined. The like- 
ness of the temple was limited almost entirely to a 
single section or wing. Yet from the uniformity of the 
sections, as indicated by his verbal descriptions of the 
palace, I could gather from this picture an image of the 
entire structure. The domes appeared like a sea of ter- 
raced mountains of something finer than, but as real as, 
glass ; and like the Alps, they extended away toward 
the horizon, until, to my eyes, the temple was blended 
with and lost in the air. In my haste to take the gauzy 
picture in my own hand, in order to examine it more 
critically, he said : " Not yet, brother !" (and instantly 
withdrew it). But of the temple he continued: " It 
cannot be compared, either in material or construction, 
to any earthly edifice. The foundations and uprising 
walls appear to grow like trees from the Spirit-Land. 
Its many mountainous domes shed a mellow light upon 
the distant hills and countless streams. The palace of 
the Living God, to my earthly fancy, could not be more 
perfect and beautiful. It is surrounded by a reflecting 
atmosphere, with a power superior to that of the sun. 

" Afar from the kingdom of earth I stood, my brother ; 
and the palace-doors, like flowers in bloom, welcomed 
me. My joy was full of light like sunbeams, yet 
entered I there a sorrowful guest. ' The Zona* has 

* This name is given to a visitor. 






A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 91 

come V ' The Zona is here !' was shouted and echoed 
through the vast mansion. Words grew unfrequent 
and low in every direction. The wing of the temple in 
which I stood was immense, and subdivided into tented 
apartments like a fair-ground or festival, and in each 
alcove and grotto, as far as I could see, there was some- 
thing artificial. Yet a mystic shade, like the shadow of 
autumn upon the brilliant bloom of summer, covered 
every person and place. The mansion was filled with 
people of every country on earth, young and old, who 
seemed to be examining and adoring the beautiful and 
strange articles on exhibition. In silence I walked 
among the thronging visitors. Many faces smiled 
sweetly as I approached, yet a mute wail of grief 
seemed to succeed. Many looked happy for a moment, 
but a shadow of unrest swept over their faces. 

" My astonishment and perplexity increased every 
instant. The plaintive song of the baskatella floated 
through the temple, and the flowers, like myrtles in 
bloom, shed a fragrance of sorrow upon all. ' What 
can this mean V I exclaimed. ' Is this in the Spirit- 
Land V As I spoke, a hand touched me upon the 
shoulder ; I turned, and beheld my Apozea, the teacher, 
who said : ' These are opeathaleta ; can you not do them 
much good V I besought the Greek to instruct me in 
the causes of their condition. He answered : 4 Speak 
to that young man [pointing to a person near us], and 
get from him his story.' Obeying the suggestion, I 
asked the youth to confide to me his secret grief. ' That 
I will do, my darling,' he tenderly replied, ' if you 
will promise to aid me to enjoy this beautiful world.' 



92 A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT- LAND. 

Crossing my hands upon his bosom, I promised to do all 
in my power. for his happiness. 

" ' Thanks, my zona baskatella !' lie enthusiastically 
exclaimed, ■ you will make me free as the flowing Ap- 
pilobeda, and my happiness will be like that of the 
arabula !' He grasped my hand lovingly, and said : 
' Follow me to my Toleha* The good Atolie made it 
to instruct me for ever.' 

" Without hesitation I went with him through many 
avenues of the wing, and halted before a great circle of 
happy spirits, who were, like Chinese, busily construct- 
ing toys, as I thought. The young man called upon 
' Atolie,' and "a benevolent woman made her appear- 
ance. ' This is my Apozea !' said the youth, pointing 
to me as his teacher, and added : ' Allow him to behold 
the Tolelca /' 

"The fond-bosomed woman held up what resembled 
a common leather purse, filled with gold and diamonds 
and other jewelry. I wanted the good Atolie to in- 
struct me as to its significance. She waved her hand 
negatively, but the youth said : ' I will show you all.' 

" Unqnestioningly I followed him beyond the temple, 
over the flowing Atodyle, away from the Isle, and 
presently I observed that he was guiding me earthward. 
The beautiful sphere was afar, and as we approached 
the earth, he said : * I am an Italian boy of much wick- 
edness, and I must remain on the Isle of Akropana- 
mede, must live and labor for the fraternity of Plana 
de Alphos, must visit the good Atolie once every day, 
and look at that purse of gold and diamonds, until 1 

* The name given to a thing of memory. 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 93 

can overcome the effect of the evil I did before the day 
of my death.' Upon inquiring of his earthly home, he 
replied : ' Here we are just over the river Eria, in Italy, 
where my earthly body was lost in the effort to escape 
the officers of justice.' Immediately he drew my atten- 
tion to a small Italian house, in a place called Venes- 
trella, wherein I beheld a sorrowful and impoverished 
woman, looking at the likeness of her lost boy. 'That 
is my mother,' said the youth, sadly : ' she is very poor 
and wretched, for the king took all her property to 
redress the wrong I did an officer's lady, whose money 
and jewelry I one night stole from her casket.' 

tt Remembering the purse I saw in the spirit-land, in 
the hand of the good Atolie, on the Isle of Akropana- 
mede, I suggested the return of the property by drop- 
ping it upon his mother's lap. The Italian youth smiled 
with pallor, and replied : ' Ah ! my darling Apozea, 
that leather purse in the spirit-land is nothing to me 
but an artificial image, bearing admonition and educa- 
tion. It is substantial and significant there ; but here, 
on earth, it is the same as an imitation, without weight 
and without value.' 

* As he spoke thus, a new light dawned upon my yet 
more teachable and reflective reason. The Aggamede, 
then, is a Temple of Antiquities, a palace where past 
deeds or tilings are made to be present, until the right 
comes right upon earth, and until justice is fulfilled by 
the evil-doer. 'Yes!' interposed the youth, 'such is 
the temple. It is memory's crystal palace. Every arti- 
ficial toleka is an image of some thing, or of some par- 
ticular deed, accomplished or sought by the individual 
before death.' 



94 A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

" While he was yet speaking, I beheld the officer on 
the earth whose lady the boy had robbed, and by whose 
instigation the mother was reduced to wretchedness and 
beggary. ' What would give you perfect happiness V 
I asked the youth. ' To behold my mother's property 
restored, and the officer's lady forgetful of my theft,' he 
quickly responded." 

Brother Wilson in conversation assured me that this 
particular journey to earth happened nearly seven years 
ago ; and that, although several spirits had attempted 
to aid the mother, and to remove the trouble from her 
heart, yet the Italian youth is still a patient on the Isle 
of Akropanamede ; and every day he is growing wiser 
and more beautiful, but the purse will hang in the tem- 
ple until his mother leaves the earth for ever. The 
youth will not leave the Isle. Like the others there, 
his spirit is taking lessons of the least plants of truth 
that grow in the infinite summer of God, and preparing 
to reflect rays of light into dark minds in either sphere. 

" Returning to the Aggamede," continued friend 
Wilson, "with the youth, I was wiser and more help- 
ful. One antiquity that next fixed my attention was a 
singular mechanism. A Hollander seemed rapturously 
fond of it, and besought to explain to me his ' perpetual 
motion.' His mind was dead, as it were, to every great 
truth. Nothing else impressed him as useful for his 
remaining fellow-men. One day I accompanied him 
earthward, and we looked down upon his brother living 
at Hoevelaken, in the Netherlands, upon another at 
Kmmpen, and, lastly, upon the old homestead, and into 
the very tool-basket under the hovel, where the enthu- 
siast had spent his days and dollars, at JVider Kersclicn, 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 95 

making his ' perpetual motion.' He urged upon me 
the feelings of his judgment with respect to the utility 
of his invention to mankind. Many times in the tem- 
ple he would rejoice over the news that a ' medium ' for 
machine-building had been found somewhere on earth. 
He said that he had influenced many such, but as yet to 
no purpose. My Apozea, the learned and beautiful Greek, 
calls him an opeathelos, or patient within the temple. 

" On "other journeys to earth in company with these 
spirits, I have visited and examined items of individual 
interest in Prussia, at Hohenstein, Vausburg, Frische 
Nehrung ; in the land of Germany, the places called 
Aichstadt, Bheda, Kohlberg, and Bingen ; in the em- 
pire of Austria, the places known as Aclberg, Folded, 
Leypa, and Brzezany / in the country of Scotland, the 
places named Freswick, Kintyre, Lanark, and Lammer- 
muir ; in England, the places called London, Llan- 
gower, and Frodsham ; in the country of Ireland, the 
places known as Ganagh, Dublin, Eildare, and Eva- 
nagh / in France, we hav^ visited to effect the places 
called Feurs, Paris, Bellevue, and JSTapoule / in Russia, 
the places styled Evanovsk, Navolok, and lanisia / in the 
United States, the places named Peru, Boston, Waukee- 
gan, Norwich, Hartford, Washington, New Orleans, and 
Portland. Understand, my brother, that certain persons 
in these places have been effectually visited by the spirits 
of the Isle of Akropanamede. Good thus accomplished 
has made many Paralorella, or half-cured patients, who 
in due time will leave their love for ' by-gones, ? and 
will then press forward to the things which grow about 
them in divine beauty. The devotees of antiquities, 



96 A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 

either of evil or good import, are the most unteaehable 
spirits in this existence. 

" Students of the past, those who love images, and 
cling to the pictures of what has concerned them indi- 
vidually anterior to their departure from earth, are clas- 
sified here as the Miogarella. Many of them are great 
in learning. The artists who construct the keepsakes, 
the tolekas, are of both sexes, and of spirits from nearly 
all races, and are named Atoli. Zangorilla is the term 
used to signify ' lovers of the Isle.' Of this beautiful 
class of spirits there is an innumerable host. The cured 
become at first most devout and grateful inhabitants. 
Then they become gleeful, and the merriest singers and 
dancers that can be imagined. And such would not 
leave the Isle permanently if they could (as they can) 
find more attractions in other parts of the Spirit-Home. 
The merry dancers are called Opiati, and the singers, 
because of the beauty and sweetness of their songs, are 
named Ibleammah. If spirits are scholarly and learned, 
with a recollection of earthly honors and reputation for 
abilities which they have misused, and refuse to learn of 
the wisdom of the Apozea, and feel high-minded, they 
are called La Prida. But when such conceive a love 
for God as he is hid in the bird and the lilies of the 
fields, they are then classified as the Uldia, or the ' no 
longer impenitent.' Goethe and Stilling are here, and 
each claimed the origination of the beautiful image 
1 Lady Lily Siona. 5 My Apozea took these good and 
wise scholars to the musical porilleum. He next invited 
them to visit the voralia as they bloomed beneath the 
gandulea. Afterward they journeyed over the Appilo- 
beda, and meditated among the fragrant pantrello. 



A VOICE FEOM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 97 

And when they returned to the temple, they believed 
that the term 'Lily Siona ' was of no value in the 
philosophy of eternity. 

"About two years ago, as I was walking in another 
wing of this wondrous Palace of Antiquities, my Apo- 
aea illustrated a lesson by some (artificial) stone ham- 
mers and flint knives, which lie said had been long 
cherished as sacred relics by the Shoshonecs, a tribe 
of earthly Indians. The imitations were fading away 
like mountain mist in the morning, and I inquired if 
such would be the fate of everything within the temple. 
He answered: 'The useful is eternal. But things are 
temporary. 5 To my further inquiries, he said : ' Mem- 
ory is frequently loaded w T ith love for many things 
which do not exalt the spirit. Yet those things or 
images remain until the spirit hath outgrown the temple 
'of the Antiquities. When morning dawns, the night 
and its shadows depart ; so the evil is no longer evil to 
the good.' We stood near the central fountain of An- 
dromont. Many-tinted flowers grew lovingly on the 
rounded margin. I touched one, and lo! it shrivelled 
and seemed to die in a moment ! ' Behold, my baska- 
tella!' said my teacher, affectionately; 'your touch is 
poison to the mimosa sensitiva of the spirit-land. The 
damp shade of the fountain is life to the plant compared 
with thy deadly touch. On earth the asphodels grow 
upon graves to feed the manes of the departed. Here 
the rose blooms to instruct and exalt the living. The 
Arabula [divine Guest or Godj is within thee. Live 
true to that, every moment of thy progress, and no flower 
-brink from thy approach.' 
- With much sadness, I inquired to know a 



98 A VOICE FROM THE SPISIT-LAND. 

in me that had poisoned the mimosa, and he replied : 
'You are yet impatient to mount higher than you 
can see, and hasty to hold more wisdom than your spirit 
can comprehend. This aspiration is poisoned with 
ambition, and this ambition is the tempter which 
prompts thee to appear to be more than you are, and to 
seem to lenow what yon do not. Rid thee of all this, else 
the flowers of Akropanamede will shrink from thy touch, 
and the arabula will steal the sunshine from thy heart.' 
" All this happened some two years since ; and, at 
lengthened intervals, my apozea has repeated his lesson. 
During all this time, I have labored with the opeatha- 
leta of the Isle. Among them are some of the mighty- 
minded of the earth ; nobles in government ; preachers 
in religion; authors of self-aggrandizing books; adhe- 
rents to antiquated forms of thoughts; but the merry 
dancers and the sweet singers are multiplying, and sun- 
beams from the eternal sun shine through many hearts. 
At first, it seemed that the universe had been narrowed 
down to an Isle of sad and gloomy experience. Birds, 
trees, rivers, hills, sky, my fellow-beings, seemed wretched 
and nnpoetie. The Aggamede, with its multitudinous 
thickets of resplendent beauties, appeared unspiritual. 
Now, my brother, I come to tell that all is changed 
The Isle of Akropanamede is heaven. Every object is 
consecrated to good. Birds no longer sing sadly on the 
gandulea ; trees no more shed a melancholy light upon 
the flowing appilobeda ; the temple is no longer a 
palace of sorrow ; for hope and faith and truth and 
wisdom shine out from every door and dome. All who 
dwell here are divine lovers, friends, sisters, brothers: 
'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 99 

dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God 
himself shall be with them, and be their God.' Here, 
the mother's calm bosom veils the young child ; the 
flying hours bring progress to its mind ; and the warm 
wisdom of the apozea improves the restless spirit. Igno- 
rance and discord are no more to those who crave for 
and partake of the granted blessings. God is hid in 
the flower and in the fountain ; and I now know, my 
brother, which exalts my feelings most — H7ie voralia or 
the porilleum? The fountain is my greatest teacher. 
God is in it, and it ever floweth, giving waters of life 
which all may drink if they have sufficient thirst and 
wisdom." 

Friend Wilson appeared beautifully luminous, like 
an angel of the highest degree, when he spoke these 
last words. He w T as evidently very happy, and, as he 
turned to depart, I asked : " Can you give me some 
information respecting the Spiritual Congress which I 
beheld at High-Rock Tower?" 

" You can mark me in the group of i spiritual wis- 
dom,' " he replied, with a beautiful smile ; " for I am 
now counted in the class of Solon, the Athenian, who, 
with hosts, is a lover of the Isle, a zangorilla. The del- 
egations have discharged sublime duties since the Ses- 
sions you witnessed. They have exerted influence upon 
almost every kingdom. Russia is opening like a blighted 
empire, revived by the principles of justice. The stars 
of the night and the morning of her people are brighter 
now. Her slaves are less in bondage. But still greater 
changes are breaking over the hills of her destiny. 
Austria is growing less cold at her heart ; her weary 
sons will weep less in her fields ; and the shadow of pit- 



100 A VOICE FROM THE SPIBIT-LAKB. 

iless pride will lift from the tlirone of tlie empire. Japan 
pillows her head no longer on the bosom of her pale 
kingdom. She has felt our forewarning. Ignorance 
was her terrible foe, and she bore the cross without a 
crown. Her gates are open to the stranger. Angels 
have crowned the emperor, and the star of a better 
career is twinkling in her sky. And the other nations 
and powers, which have not yielded to justice, we are 
yet laboring to affect." 

" Can you tell me whether the twelve teachers men- 
tioned by Galen have been found ?" (I asked this ques- 
tion because it has many times been put to me, and 
I have wondered much upon that point.) And he 
replied : " Part of that number are this day at work in 
the vineyard of spiritual truth and progress." 

"May I know who they are?" I inquired. And he 
responded : 

" Wisdom denies even that they themselves should 
know the cause and extent of their individual efforts. 
Such vain knowledge possessed by any one of them 
would be a serious disqualification. The spiritual 
mimosa sensitiva would shrink from them, and the pure 
truth would pale and depart before them, if they pri- 
vately knew wdiat and who they are." He now appeared 
once more disposed to bid me an adieu, and said : 
"Arabula, my brother!" I asked whether he had not 
something more for me or the world, and his valedictory 
words, as he was passing outward, were: "Tell man- 
kind, my brother, that the Universe is a volume of holy 
writing, the title-page whereof not even the highest 
seraph has altogether read. Tell them that the Centre 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 101 

I 

of all formation is a holy-hearted Porilleum, a Fountain 
of eternal love and Wisdom ; that it floweth impartially 
throughout the encircling existences ; and that we drink 
fropi it as from an ocean of pure water." 



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